
Tree of Smoke
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Will Patton
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By:
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Denis Johnson
Once upon a time there was a war . . . and a young American who thought of himself as the Quiet American and the Ugly American, and who wished to be neither, who wanted instead to be the Wise American, or the Good American, but who eventually came to witness himself as the Real American and finally as simply the Fucking American. That's me.
This is the story of Skip Sands—spy-in-training, engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong—and the disasters that befall him thanks to his famous uncle, a war hero known in intelligence circles simply as the Colonel. This is also the story of the Houston brothers, Bill and James, young men who drift out of the Arizona desert into a war in which the line between disinformation and delusion has blurred away. In its vision of human folly, and its gritty, sympathetic portraits of men and women desperate for an end to their loneliness, whether in sex or death or by the grace of God, this is a story like nothing in our literature.
Tree of Smoke is Denis Johnson's first full-length novel in nine years, and his most gripping, beautiful, and powerful work to date.
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Critic reviews
- Audie Award Winner, Literary Fiction, 2008
“Patton is outstanding...[his] performance is quiet, powerful, and gut-wrenching....This is MUST listening.” —AudioFile Magazine
“This is the very talented Will Paton's greatest performance as a reader so far. His range of voices and evocation of character--the hopeful, the innocent, the cynical, the despairing and the mad--bring the tale to even more terrible and blistered life than the book itself, making it a 23-hour excursion into mesmerizing darkness.” —The Washington Post
“Will Patton's reading of \"Tree of Smoke\" is superb...The experience overall is one of hallucinatory horror, laugh-out-loud outrage, of sadness at the tremendous waste of lives, money and the national pride that went into Vietnam and did not return.” —Sarasota Herald-Tribune
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I'm a big reader, and I like marking in important books. I like underlining important, repeated phrases and flipping back to earlier passages when I sense the author making allusions. I kept wanting to do this with Tree of Smoke, but I couldn't! Specifically, I remember a significant folk tale that is related early in the book that may be a key to understanding the whole, but it occurred so early in this rather long book that I couldn't remember the details of the tale by the end of the book. I needed to be able to flip back and read the folk tale again!
Here's the upshot of my too long review: I would recommend that someone read this book, but I do not recommend the audiobook.
Better read than heard
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Well crafted; perfectly realized
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Disneyland on Acid
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I was not prepared. This book left me ashamed that I have neglected to acquire an adequate picture of the events in Vietnam, the evolution of the capacity of humans to remain standing in a world that rarely makes a distinction between what is right and wrong, regardless of politics.
I will be listening to this book again, I feel I must.
Harrowing yet a story that needs to be heard
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Writing is ok. Story goes nowhere.
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Incredible
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Why that high - my rating!
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It is not short but seems to go quickly.
The narration is wonderful; Patton has a great tone for this type of book; he generally makes just the right amount of (minimal) effort to make different voices for different characters.
Perhaps the best summation of this novel is that the title is perfect.
Amazing and Quotidian, Inventive and Banal
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Works on every level...
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Profoundly and exquisite.
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