Denis Johnson

Denis Johnson's follow-up to Tree of Smoke, the National Book Award-winning Vietnam novel, will be serialized in 10,000 word excerpts in Playboy over the course of four months starting in July. The book, described as a Chandlerish noir set out west, will be published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in fall 2009.  read more »

Can "Important Writers" ever go wrong? The Atlantic's B.R. Myers didn't like Denis Johnson's recent novel Tree of Smoke. But, he claims, reviewers are so blinded by the critical success of Johnson's Jesus' Son that they can't take a wary eye to his new works.  read more »

Tree of Smoke will surely be hailed as a great novel of the Vietnam War, which it is—but more than that it’s a caterwauling anthem about American jitters, American doubt and American folly.  read more »