|
|
Tree of Smoke Audio Book
|
Tree of Smoke
Author:
Denis Johnson
Reader: Will Patton
2008 Audie Award Winner: Best Literary Fiction. This epic pulls us into the quagmire of the Vietnam War. Disaster befalls a would-be spy – involved in psychological warfare against the Vietcong – and two Houston brothers. Indeed, fate chokes everyone unfortunate enough to stumble into this conflict. National Book Award winner for fiction. "Sings with truth, poetry, humor, and desperation... Patton's performance is quiet, powerful, and gut-wrenching."—AudioFile
ยป Read More
|
Available Audio Book Editions:
| A9U214 |
UNABRIDGED |
Audio CDs ( 18 ) |
|
|
|
|
|
Publish Date: 09/04/2007
ISBN: 9781427202147
|
|
You may also like audio books with the same:
Synopsis:
|
Denis Johnson's long-awaited Vietnam novel is as labyrinthine and mysterious as the tunnels of Cu Chi. Johnson follows dozens of characters, including the wayward Houston brothers (who appeared as would-be bank robbers in Johnson's nearly perfect first novel, ANGELS), a cadre of PsyOp (Psychological Operations) CIA agents led by the legendary Colonel Sands, an NLF double agent, a German assassin, a loyal South Vietnamese helicopter pilot, a theologically troubled Christian human-rights advocate, plus the countless grunts, Lurps, spies, whores, and crazies who provide the background to a world turned upside down with the madness of war. Ostensibly, the plot involves the Colonel's unauthorized plan to convince Hanoi that a rogue CIA agent with a nuclear bomb is loose in Vietnam. But Johnson has always been a writer more interested in the transcendent moment than in the over-arching narrative, and one reads TREE OF SMOKE for the piercing details, the troubled souls, the spiritual gloom and grandeur, the sudden and unexpected glimpses of exhilaration and transcendence, and the equally sudden plunges back into confusion and insanity. If the book feels fractured, it is because one of the novel's repeated themes is drawn from Corinthians: "And there are differences of administration, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operation, but it is the same God which worketh all in all." For Johnson, Vietnam is a constantly shifting reality, a land without set rules, without logic, a place that is always both heaven and hell. TREE OF SMOKE won the 2007 National Book Award.
|
Book Awards:
|
Winner of the
2007 National Book Award in Fiction |
Book Reviews:
| "Is this our last Vietnam novel?...What serious writer, after tuning in to Johnson's terrifying, dissonant opera, can return with a fresh ear?....When the book ends, in a heartbreaking soliloquy..., you feel that America's Vietnam experience has been brought to a closure that's as good as we'll ever get." (starred review) |
| Publishers Weekly - Michael Coffey (06/25/2007) |
| |
Author Bio:
|
An acclaimed but reclusive poet, essayist, playwright, and novelist, Denis Johnson's writing exists on the fringe of human existence: his language oscillates between brutal and transcendent, his protagonists are drifters, junkies, dreamers, and murderers, and his nonfiction work focuses on militias, outlaws, and countries in the throes of war. Born in Munich, Germany, Johnson spent much of his childhood in Tokyo and the Philippines before moving back to the United States. In his essays he often alludes to a youth spent traveling the country, addicted to alcohol and drugs. After attending the Masters writing program at the University of Iowa, Johnson began to publish his poetry. In 1983 his first novel, ANGELS, about two brothers who commit a botched bank robbery, was described by Alice Hoffman in the New York Times Book Review as "A dazzling and savage first novel." Still, Johnson remained out of the literary limelight until JESUS' SON (1992), a brief and fragmented collection of interconnected short stories about love and drug abuse that was made into a feature film. In 2007, his epic Vietnam novel, 20-odd-years in the making, won The National Book Award. Johnson could not accept the prize in person as he was in Iraq reporting on the war.
|
Related Subjects to Browse
Copyright 1995-2009 Muze Inc.  For personal non-commercial use only. All rights reserved. Some content for books is owned by Baker & Taylor, Inc. or its licensors and is subject to copyright and all other protections provided by applicable law.
|
|
 |
Your Cart is empty. |
 |
Saved Cart is empty. |
 |
Wish List is empty. |
Security All personal information you submit is encrypted and secure.
Guarantee You may return any purchase for a complete refund within 15 days of receipt.
Learn more »
Become an Audio Book Discount Plan member today for great discounts, reduced
shipping, and a free audiobook!
Get a Free Audio Book
|
