→ November 4, 2009
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Tree of Smoke.

I know the site’s been flaky today. The server is fine but WordPress is hanging up and I’ve had to have hosting company restart it twice.

I’ll be on Mike & Mike in the Morning on Wednesday at 7:40 am EST, after which, I’m going on vacation for a week, so this will probably be the last post here till Veterans’ Day. And – in case that wasn’t clear enough – there will be no Klawchat this week.

So, Tree of Smoke … 614 pages, read the whole damn thing, still have no idea what the point was, why I care about any of the characters or who the main character even was, what any of the threads had to do with each other, and why author Denis Johnson’s prose was so disjointed, mixing florid descriptions with poorly used profanity. (In fact, given that most of the novel is set in Vietnam during the war, I actually expected more profanity.) There’s no plot. Stories don’t start and end; we get the middle, sort of, and then somebody dies, and it’s over. The novel is full of allusions to the Bible, and a few references to other religions, but none of them made any sense to me on their own or in clarifying the point of the book. I thought I caught a few continuity issues in some of the subplots, but it’s possible that I was too bored to remember what was going on.

I could probably do a better job of taking this novel apart, but by the time I finished last night I wanted nothing more to do with it, and besides, this review from the Atlantic does a much, much better job than I could have hoped to do, even if I’d started the book with the intention of verbally lighting it on fire.

Anyway, I actually just finished the audiobook version of SuperFreakonomics, which was fantastic, but that review will have to wait till after the vacation. I will say that the brouhaha over the global warming chapter seems misplaced, and I’m guessing the critics haven’t read the entire chapter.

The reading list for the vacation – I probably won’t read all of these, but I have a minor phobia of running out of books – includes The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Remains of the Day, The Case of the Missing Books, Cold Comfort Farm, and And a Bottle of Rum.

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Comments

  1. Michael
    Nov, 4 2009 / 1:06 pm

    I’m glad I’m not the only one who packs 6 books, but only manages to read one or two.

  2. Kieran
    Nov, 4 2009 / 1:16 pm

    Ever read Klosterman?

  3. DB
    Nov, 4 2009 / 2:45 pm

    Keith,
    Are you someone who finishes every book you start out of principle? I’m not and so I gave up on Tree of Smoke about halfway through. Great decision.

    I am interested to hear what you have to say about The Girl with the Dragon Tatto. It did not get the best reviews but is the one book that I have recommended to others and every single person (even those who typically do not read) enjoyed it immensely. Remains of the Day is one of my favorite novels.

  4. Mookie
    Nov, 4 2009 / 2:59 pm

    Keith, while we’re on the subject of Vietnam fiction, have you read “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien? It’s far and away my favorite of the genre and a book I return to and re-read every few years. The form can be a bit off-putting – it falls somewhere between a collection of short stories and a novel (think “In Our Time” by Hemingway but more cohesive) – but well worth the read. There are images and passages that still haunt me nearly twenty years after first reading it. “Paco’s Story,” by Larry Heinemann, a National Book Award winner, is another great one.

  5. Chuck
    Nov, 4 2009 / 4:39 pm

    Vicente Padilla apparently shot himself in a hunting accident in Nicaragua. You always said he had control and commmand issues, Keith.

    http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-padilla4-2009nov04,0,6153364.story

  6. Albabe
    Nov, 4 2009 / 5:13 pm

    I went to the bookstore 2 weeks ago to buy Cloud Atlas and somehow came away with Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I had paused to give Tattoo a look and, for the 3rd time, had a stranger in a bookstore spontaneously comment that it was an amazing book. I’m also a sucker for literate mysteries so I gave it a go and really loved it. It’s not paced at all like an American mystery/thriller, which I have seen some criticize, but I thought that worked in it’s favor.

    Now I’m halfway through Cloud Atlas and really enjoying that as well, though it’s quite a different read from Tattoo.

    Final comment (apologies for the novel length comment ) – Keith, I just wanted to thank you for getting me back to reading. Because of your Harry Potter recommendation during baseball chats I took the first few books on my honeymoon a few years ago. I devoured them – and the rest of the series – in short order, and before you know it had started reading avidly and regularly for the first time since I was a teenager (I’m 37). Fiction, non fiction, full length, short stories, you name it. So, thanks!

  7. Kyle J
    Nov, 4 2009 / 6:20 pm

    Where ya going on vacation?

  8. JW
    Nov, 4 2009 / 9:03 pm

    Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Missing Books?

  9. S R
    Nov, 4 2009 / 9:17 pm

    Dragon Tatoo and Remains of the Day are both good, Remains may even be brilliant.
    You should like both of them

  10. Jaime
    Nov, 4 2009 / 11:55 pm

    I had the exact same thought (except the profanity) about His Dark Materials!

  11. BSK
    Nov, 5 2009 / 2:25 am

    I love KLaw, but he is one of ESPN.com’s top baseball guys, and he goes out of town the day the WS might end (at the very best, the day before). I get his focus is primarily on other things, but the timing still seems a bit odd, unless it’s a trip that couldn’t be moved for some reason.

  12. Exilerugby
    Nov, 5 2009 / 4:24 am

    Yeah…I’m thinking that Keith should be the one who decides when he heads out on vacation.

    The world does not revolve around ESPN.

  13. J. Yirinec
    Nov, 5 2009 / 11:22 am

    The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is, indeed, very good.

  14. Zach from Wiley
    Nov, 5 2009 / 5:07 pm

    Dragon Tattoo is excellent, very enjoyable, and a very fast read so beware.

    Missing Books had one of the most infuriating protagonists in Israel Armstrong that I had read in ages, but I basically enjoyed the book despite my hatred towards him. Not one for the desert island, though, and the next book in the series (Mr. Dixon Disappears) was just unreadably bad. I mean terrible.

  15. keith
    Nov, 11 2009 / 4:17 am

    No Klosterman. Haven’t read The Things They Carried. I finish most books I start, but not all; I bailed on The Magic Mountain after about 40 pages, for example.

    Vacation was in Disneyworld, again. My daughter loves it. That, right now, is the most important variable.

    BSK, you’re a longtime reader and I’m surprised you don’t see the logic in my timing. I don’t cover the World Series in any meaningful way, and of course it hadn’t gone six games since 2003. I do cover the AFL and the hot stove league. What better time to go than between the two in one of the few dead periods in the baseball calendar outside of January?

  16. BSK
    Nov, 13 2009 / 4:14 am

    keith-

    I suppose it wasn’t clear, but I guess I was thinking more from ESPN’s perspective. I get why it made sense for you, given your focus. I’m just surprised ESPN was on board with it, though perhaps they are better at managing the “talent” than I give them credit for. I could imagine a conversation going something like this:

    KLaw: AFL is wrapped up. Hot Stove is cold for a few weeks. I’m outta here.
    ESPN Big Wig: What about the World Series?
    KL: You realize I’ve been in Arizona for the entire playoffs, covering a minor league that is now over, right?
    EBW: It’s the World Series. What’s next, Norman Chad missing the WSOP?
    KL: What?
    EBW: Give us 10,000 on Brett Favre.
    KL: Yea…about that…

    Maybe I need to give ESPN a tad more credit…?