Tree of Smoke A Novel

Massive novel ostensibly about the CIA in Vietnam from the early sixties to the end of the decade but really about living myths and the greener grass even if its actually a patch of mud. A meandering, and sometime plodding storyline, is supported mainly by the superb writing that lulls you with its simplicity and elegance before it arrives with sometimes stunning depth (e.g., "I didn't know how to act, my had never died before."). The cast of of half a dozen plus characters are almost entirely fully developed (as they should be over 614 pages) but it was difficult to empathize and connect with any single one. The most endearing is Francis X Sands, aka the Colonel, but he's almost frustratingly mythological to the point where his own death is a mysterious unknown. He's the focal point that drives nearly all plot lines, though his perspective is rarely shared. Stymying in length and sometimes story but rewarding in prose and emotional exploration.

The Vietnam War (or conflict as some might insist) came right on the heels of the “good war”. And young men went off to fight, hoping they were fighting for the same noble cause they thought their fathers fought for, but they only discovered that the “good war” was a myth. The basic rules of war – don’t kill the animals, don’t rape their women – were initially obeyed – but as they became men at the age of 18 they learned there were no rules. The repercussions of the evils of the climate of the chemical infused existence (and yes, I use chemical to mean all manner of things) the soldiers in Vietnam endured followed some of them home, and the vets with scrambled heads took their place in the lines of the homeless shelters, flop houses and low-wage paying jobs. They tried to fit in to the life back home using the same set of rules they had learned to accept while defending democracy and capitalism. This book left me breathless and with a tense neck and shoulders and a sour, growly stomach whenever I would finish a chapter. I took the horrors dealt with in The Tree of Smoke with me as I tried to interact with my coworkers, visit with friends, cook dinner and converse with my husband. Always, I was thinking of war and this book. And I can guarantee you, it what'n no good war I was thinking about. This book is that powerful. And as I watch the news unfold about the Auburn University student who was killed. And I read that the suspect has just come off a 16 month tour of Iraq, (his mother says he has not been the same since he returned) I look over my shoulder fearing that the characters of the book have crawled out of the pages and followed me home.

Unable to connect to the constant rotary of characters and seemingly pointless goings on, at page 150 I decided to swallow the cost of the book and set it aside. Perhaps I will come back to it at some point.. like when the world runs out of books.