2007NBA 2007
Tree of Smoke
Denis Johnson · 1949–2017 · United States
Why it matters
A CIA psy-ops family operates through the fog and moral rot of the Vietnam War. Johnson's National Book Award-winning epic of American intelligence work as a form of collective delusion.
At a glance
war novel
Difficulty 8/10slow pace614 pagesSprawling, tonally shifting Vietnam-era narrative with a huge cast.
Deep dive
An intelligence operation built on a lie so elaborate it eventually serves no one — and a war fought less against a visible enemy than inside a hall of mirrors of the Americans' own making.
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