TREE OF SMOKE: A Novel by Johnson, Denis - 2007

New York, New York, U.S.A.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Mint/New. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Once upon a time there was a war . . . and a young American who thought of himself as the Quiet American and the Ugly American, and who wished to be neither, who wanted instead to be the Wise American, or the Good American, but who eventually came to witness himself as the Real American and finally as simply the Fucking American. That's me." This is the story of Skip Sands-spy-in-training, engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong-and the disasters that befall him thanks to his famous uncle, a war hero known in intelligence circles simply as the Colonel. This is also the story of the Houston brothers, Bill and James, young men who drift out of the Arizona desert into a war in which the line between disinformation and delusion has blurred away. In its vision of human folly, and its gritty, sympathetic portraits of men and women desperate for an end to their loneliness, whether in sex or death or by the grace of God, this is a story like nothing in our literature.Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction, TREE OF SMOKE was also nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction as Best Book.Author also of JESUS'S SON, ALREADY DEAD: A California Gothic, and TRAIN DREAMS, among others. Mint, unread, first edition, first printing, in new, mylar-protected dust jacket. [Not remainder=marked or price-clepped] *Packed carefully and shipped in a box to insure arrival in pristine condition, L162