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  • Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson book cover
  • Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson book cover
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Tree of Smoke

by Denis Johnson

Psychological operations in the Vietnam War

$20.19 USD
$33.66 USD $20.19 USD
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Awards & Recognition

  • Award recognition

    National Book Award Winner

    The metadata identifies Tree of Smoke as a National Book Award winner.

  • Editorial selection

    New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year

    Selected as one of The New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year.

  • Critical praise

    Praise from Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times

    Kakutani describes the book as likely to become a classic work of literature produced by the Vietnam War.

AlbakiReads Editorial

Psychological operations in the Vietnam War

Set amid the Vietnam War, Tree of Smoke links CIA operative William “Skip” Sands’s work in psychological operations against the Vietcong with the experiences of brothers Bill and James Houston, who leave the Arizona desert for the conflict. The publisher’s description foregrounds a blurred boundary between disinformation and delusion, connecting the brothers’ wartime passage to Sands’s intelligence work. The novel’s espionage frame places questions of deception and uncertainty within the larger setting of the war.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in fiction about the Vietnam War.
  • Readers drawn to espionage and psychological operations.
  • Readers seeking a novel that connects intelligence work with the experiences of young men entering a war.

Themes

WarEspionagePsychological operationsDisinformation and delusion

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER

One of the New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year

"The God I want to believe in has a voice and a sense of humor like Denis Johnson's." --Jonathan Franzen

Named A Best Book of the Year by Time, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Salon, Slate, The National Book Critics Circle, The Christian Science Monitor. . .

Tree of Smoke is the story of William "Skip" Sands, CIA--engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong--and the disasters that befall him. It is also the story of the Houston brothers, Bill and James, young men who drift out of the Arizona desert and into a war where the line between disinformation and delusion has blurred away. In the words of Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times, Tree of Smoke is "bound to become one of the classic works of literature produced by that tragic and uncannily familiar war."

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