Category Archives: Viet Nam

Caught the lede review in the latest issue of the VVA Veteran magazine of "Tree of Smoke" and thought, well, that might be worth a read. A bit off-putting, however, was the suggestion that it was the definitive novel of the war, in part, because its author–like Stephen Crane–never served. Uh oh. A book pasted together from histories, movies and other novels. Yuk. Then I found the glowing NYTimes and WaPo reviews and the transmission of my doubt slid up into fifth gear. These champions of the Left wouldn’t like any book about the war unless it presented it as hopelessly immoral (their own standard and long cherished narrative), and sure enough, the WaPo’s review concluded that the book’s soldiers are like depraved Iraq veterans (not the "decent ones," who want to come home, you see) who keep going back for more, despite the foolish venture, etc. Criticism is an industry, like publishing, and the critics often only wash the hands of the folks who send them free copies. They also prefer to travel in packs. So I went looking for a maverick and found this guy. I even liked his headline, a reminder of another singleminded upholding of the Left’s narrative. So I’ll skip the smoking tree, which probably isn’t any more of an original reference than to a untoward napalm strike, anyhow. The smell of etc. in the morning.