What happened to America?

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	• Tree of Smoke: A Novel Denis Johnson Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007 - 624 pages average customer review:based on 80 reviews view larger image
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What happened to America?

It seems like most reviewers are approaching TOS as a historical Vietnam novel (which I don't think is mainly true) or as an anti-war novel (which I don't think is mainly true). The main theme of the book seems to be "what happened to America?" There's this sense that we peeked in WWII. Coming off of WWII America feels like it had a sense of self respect and holy destiny. Then, over the course of the Vietnam War, we see that bleed away.

WWII America -- the America that carries a real sense of self respect -- is represented by the Colonel. The sort of gradual decay of America's sense of self respect is represented by Skip (the quiet American, to the ugly American, to the F-ing American).

The Brothers Houston seem like they're basically the cogs of war. They don't look for a higher meaning. They don't attach themselves to any real belief system or mythology. They're not really bad or good people -- they're just kind of a mess. On some level, I don't think Vietnam undoes James. I don't think it's even particularly bad for him. He was a messy individual before the war, he's messy during the war, and he's messy after it. James and Bill are the reality of every war -- a bunch of poor, flawed, violent misfits thrown into the most chaotic violent situation imaginable. The difference between the Houston Brothers of Vietnam and the Houston Brothers of more popular wars is that America lacked a decent mythos in Vietnam.

I think that DJ attributes the American loss of self respect to a kind of disregard for the importance of mythology. The old America of the Colonel really acknowledges the value of that mythology (the whole idea of the Colonel flying his plane with one wing shot off) and the effect that our mythology has on ourselves. The new America -- Skip and to some extent Jimmy Storm -- doesn't value mythology at all. At best the new America views mythology as some kind of trick to be used against a primitive and superstitious enemy. The new America doesn't worry so much about mythology, because it moves in with this dominant, tangible, superior force. The new America makes its decisions mathematically: "we have 100 James Houston's to every one of theirs, therefore we will win". I think DJ does a good job showing the failure of this mindset in the section on the Tet Offensive. The VC take absurdly disproportionate losses, but walk away with a victory in terms of mythology.

Jimmy Storm's journey at the end seems to be where America is now: wandering around trying to figure out what went wrong and why we don't feel good about ourselves anymore. Ultimately, I think DJ sees our godlessness and our inability to believe in our own myths as our failure.

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Its complicated

Haven't I read/seen this before? Conrad;Mailer; Heller; Apocolypse Now. Cliche all over. Nothing new in the message.
Yet, its a hyptnotic read. Brilliant writing. Certainly a stretch for the National Book Award. Recommended only for book junkies.

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Heavy Read

At 1900 pages and with a somber subject this is a heavy read in more than one way. I found it hard to track the many plots developed in the first half of the book. These negatives to the side, I found myself drawn to it and could not let much time pass before I was back at it again. A complex and layered work.

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Overrated

I just finished reading this book. What a slog. How did this win the National Book Award. Characters are either underdeveloped or cliches. Dialogue is stiffer than a corpse. I never got a sense that the author knew very much about the CIA.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, page 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

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