TREE OF SMOKE - DENNIS JOHNSON

This is by no means a bad book. It has some interesting characters and covers a wide range of themes and scenarios in its setting of South East Asia during the Vietnam War. However it is not a great book either. For me it is slow and ponderous and rather than using its 600 odd pages wisely it seems full of unnecessary detail and tiring prose. I did enjoy this book but for me its not his greatest. I much preferred  Jesus' Hands which is great collection of loosely linked short stories.

FACTOTUM - BUKOWSKI

Not a great deal to say about this except more of the same. Bukowskis second novel about semi-autobiographical character Henry Chinaski details more hilarious stories of low life America. Menial jobs, drinking, women and gambling ensue. I guess you could be disappointed with the similarity to his first novel, personally I reckon he has hit the right formula and so why the fuck would you change it? Righteous.

THE YELLOW BIRDS - KEVIN POWERS

Succeeds where many books about war have failed, particularly those written by ex-servicemen about conflict in the Middle East as this one is. Bravo Two Zero and Jarhead were too much about military jargon and all the other associated bullshit with military. This book is a powerful and compelling story about three men in the Iraq war. Gung-ho Nihilist Sergeant Sterling, childish and detached Private Murphy and the narrator Private John Bartle who tells of his experiences before, during and after the war. This could be a book stuffed full with cliches and horrible genre tropes, but instead this is a brilliant, hallucinatory, sad and daring novel that succeeds to my mind in portraying realistic experiences, thoughts and emotions of those involved in conflict. Written with a poetic verve and with scenes that could so easily have been mishandled by a lesser writer this book is the best I have read in an age. What a first novel! I look forward to his next output. Like a young Cormac McCarthy!

BUTCHERS CROSSING - JOHN WILLIAMS

An extremely well crafted tale about the American frontier in the 1870s. Will Andrews packs in his studies at Harvard and heads west to return to nature and find something of himself. He is soon convinced on heading into the colorado mountains to a hidden valley full of buffalo. Things go wrong and, on their return to the frontier town Butchers Crossing much is changed. The book is a classic portrayal of the American west with hard men and harsh country. There is for me a great sense of futility throughout the book but this is by no means a depressing novel. Overall a well balanced story with gritty characters and an almost perfect style of prose all create a great read. For fans of Blood Meridian et al.