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The Laughing Monsters (2014)

by Denis Johnson(Favorite Author)

3.36 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0374280592 (ISBN13: 9780374280598)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

review 1: I thoroughly enjoyed The Laughing Monsters a fast jagged novel about mercenaries plotting and selling information in Sierra Leone, Uganda and the Congo. Nobody writes terse , tough guy dialogue like Johnson. His shorter novels seem to combine Raymond Chandler with Joseph Conrad and are relentlessly entertaining and deeply existential. the modern Africa depicted by Johnson is a pretty grim place but then so are the two principal protagonists Nair the narrator and his African counterpart Michael Adriko. Their corrupt journey through Africa is. Like a buddy movie gone to hell highly entertaining but chilly and cold blooded. Johnson continues to write outstanding fiction.
review 2: You may know Denis Johnson from his highly acclaimed short story collection or his... more National Book Award-winning novel, Tree of Smoke. This short novel is a zany spy story about a guy named Roland Nair who is working, ostensibly, for NATO Intelligence — he's sent to Sierre Leone to find out what his former friend and long-time schemer, Michael Adriko, is up to. It's presumed the answer is "no good," and Nair soon finds out how right that is — but he has a few schemes up his sleeve as well. Will he join forces with Michael on one last get-rich-quick caper, or will he rat him out? This is just a good romp of a novel — you spend most of your time with it trying to figure out who will be loyal to whom, or who might be betrayed. Is there actually honor among thieves? And it's all set against the chaos and strange customs (to an American audience) of modern Africa, as the two (along with Michael's fiancee) travel from Sierre Leone to Uganda and then to Congo. This is a quick, one- or two-sitting read, and a good introduction to Johnson, if you've never read him before. less

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