The Laughing Monsters : A Novel

from nmele

After reading Tree of Smoke and Jesus' Son, I became a Denis Johnson fanboy. This, the last book he published while he was alive, confirms me as a fan. His depiction of Freetown, Sierra Leone, where I lived for a time almost 45 years ago, rang true despite a very thin plot. Of course, I read John...

from sleahey

Who's on whose side for what spy mission? It's all rather confusing and suspenseful and political, but really it's about friendship and romance, loyalty and betrayal in contemporary Africa. Michael and Nair are adventure junkies, constantly scheming as they move around Africa as quickly as the re...

from Hagelstein

Roland Nair, a Danish-American military officer assigned to NATO, returns to Sierra Leone after a decade away. He's meeting Michael Adriko, an old African friend, but he's also spying on Adriko. They have a scam going involving the sale of possible fissionable material to criminals that may be re...

from ozzer

Johnson applies his skill with dialogue to expound on his jaded view of the world post 9-11. "We talked about how the world has changed since the Twin Towers went down. I think you could easily say the part that's changed the most is the world of intelligence, security, and defense." "I can't den...

from Vicki_Weisfeld

The Laughing Monsters (2014) is an antic novel that focuses on two friends-one white, one black-whose wild adventure starts in pre-Ebola Freetown, Sierra Leone, and unravels across Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ghana. Their goal is to make a financial killing doing something-selli...