At Least Four Trees of Smoke Were Used to Publish This Book

By Barrister Lichtenauer

This was a long and hard literary battle. This was 700 + pages of thin paper and lots of words. This will always be remembered as the book that almost killed the Gentlemen Bookreader's Club of America. But we muddled through it and, for the most part, are glad we did.

Dennis Johnson’s epic Tree of Smoke follows what feels like 41,234 characters as they work to understand Vietnam while trying to stay alive (spoiler – a lot of them die, but its not what you’d expect).

• There’s the CIA operatives who drink bourbon and talk about stuff they want to do but never actually do
• The on-the-ground grunts trying to bone Vietnamese whores and get shot at once or twice
• There’s the Vietnamese people who sit around sweating and not trusting anyone
• There’s the aid worker who bones the CIA operatives and looks gross
• There’s the assassin who complains a lot

Don’t get me wrong. It was a good book, Johnson can write – he’s eloquent and brilliant when he wants to be. When he doesn’t want to be, you get clunky dialogue and really confusing descriptions. Make no mistake, this was a classic “stick-with-it” book. If you could get through the first 150-200 pages, it starts moving at a good pace and gets pretty interesting. But it’s tough. The first seventh of this book is a real chore.

I'd love to give you a well-written synopsis of everything that happened, but this book was full of storylines and sub plots and sub sub plots and characters who get killed or not... its a huge mess. But I think that's the point. When it comes down to it, reading a book about Vietnam probably shouldn't be easy. It probably shouldn't be a simple, straight-up story. Because isn't that the point? Things out there were a huge, bloody mess. No one knew what was going on. And it's reflected in Johnson's sprawling narrative.

So. What is a Tree of Smoke? It'll only take you 700+ pages to find out.

Overall rating: Whale Oil Lamp

Barrister Lichtenauer: +1.75
Barrister Russell: +.25
Barrister Shaw: +1.5
Barrister Wells: -3.5

Meeting Place: Jack Stack Barbeque - it wasn't really related to the book. It was more of convenience. Yes, we should have eaten Vietnamese food or something like that.

Next Up: The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon