Thursday, December 27, 2007

Tree of Smoke


Denis Johnson's giant tome is, deservedly, on just about everyone's "Best of 2007" list. It's massive and, in all candor, would normally deserve a serious commitment of time. For me, that's a day, but...that's just me.

The Washington Post's review (which was the second one I read) called Johnson's act of writing TREE OF SMOKE "literary bravado," and I have to agree. Since I now teach "THE THINGS THEY CARRY" every year, I've become more familiar with Vietnam, both through a historical and literary lens. SMOKE, however, is operating on a completely different plane. It's ponderous in a completely different way -- leaving you not with the personal weight of the war, but with the insanity of the exercise.
I not only HIGHLY RECOMMEND this important and stunning work, I'm up for a nice long dialogue with friends about the image of a "tree of smoke" because, in all candor, I've been thinking about the title for several hours now, and it's really under my skin. I'm not shaking this book any time soon, I fear, even if I make little piles of index cards....

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home