Customer Reviews

The Devil Tree

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

'The Devil Tree' is a disappointing, messy read about a young man in the early 1970s trying to piece together his life after the deaths of his mega-wealthy industrialist parents. He wanders through the drug stage, the meaningless sex stage, and forever has bouts of "soul searching". But unfortunately this reader found him to be so unappealing that I gradually became disinterested in him altogether. The rather choppy literary style of Kosinski, an unfortunate departure from his terrific 'Being There', only made matters worse.

Bottom line: a rather burdensome and unenjoyable read.

Well I see that this book now has a better cover than it did on the older edition I had from a different publisher (Bantam). The cover on my edition was so awful I had to cover it with masking tape and scribble over it the picture of a satanic tree. The publishers had stuck some inane photo of a woman in boots at the prow of a boat--good grief! I guess this was from the days when a dearth of originality and a pandering to the lowest common denominator invariably led a publisher flummoxed about how to sell anything actually resembling a real book to say, "I know, lets put a provocatively clad woman on the cover!"

What am I talking about..."from the days?" We're still in those days. Anyway, its nice to see someone at Grove at least stretching their creative muscle enough to use Photoshop to solarize the picture of a tree for the cover of this edition. Its not terribly original, but its not terribly embarrassing either.

But enough about the cover. Let's talk about the back cover copy. The back cover copy on my edition was only less embarrassing than the cover photo because it required you to take the trouble to read it--and reading, as anyone can judge from the quality of the types of books published nowadays, is something very few people take the time to do, if, that is, they can actually do it. The copy on my edition of "The Devil Tree" was all, like, far out, man, all trippy, and tuned-in and dropped out and stuff.

Look, this is a serious novel by an incisive social critic of the late 20th century American scene. It deals specifically with the corruption and decadence of a culture--American culture in this case--when the irrepressible creativity and drive that inspired a society's great innovators peters out and leaves little trace in their descendants except for the tremendous amount of accumulated wealth and power that has been inherited by those far less directed toward any goal.

Whalen, Kosinski's protagonist in "The Devil Tree," is one such privileged fellow. A man who has been given all that anyone can ever want, he has no idea what to do with it. He has everything, in fact, but an identity of his own. There is a woman, Karen, a beautiful model, who is as vacuous at her core as he is. These two vacuums orbit about each other, mutually afraid to get sucked into the void of each other.

Kosinski really is a brilliant writer--his prose sharp and gemlike, bits of glittering collage, a postmodern mosaic of literary style. This book--and Kosinski himself--deserves much better regard than it seems to me they've enjoyed since his rather ignominious last years and passing. I consider "Steps" to be his masterwork, but "The Devil Tree" is close behind it.

This is pretty classic Kosinski, not his best, but still all Kosinski. I first read this one in 1978. I thought at the time that this was a bit of literary experimentation, and still feel as such. I enjoyed it, but then I am a fan of this particular author. I am not sure if younger folks, i.e. those who did not live the 60s and 70s could get the proper feel of this work, but perhaps I a wrong here. Anyway, if for no other reason, it should be read. It is a good bit of literature and we could all probably learn something from it.

Like Kosinski's second novel, "Steps", this is more of a mosaic of short, linked vignettes. In this book, however, there is a central character, who is more of a symbol of current American culture as Kosinski saw it.

I read the original edition of "The Devil Tree" when it was first published in 1973, and after his first three books I was somewhat disappointed. I reread it in the early 1980s when Kosinski published a "revised and expanded" version, and I found it much more satisfying.

Jonathan Whalen, the main character, is the scion of a fabulously wealthy family. As the story begins, he has just come into his inheritance. From there, the story weaves back and forth between his past and his present, describing his alienation, his failed relationships, his inability to fit in. In the 1970s this was the archetype of American youth, particularly those who came from upper-class families, and Kosinski's observations may seem dated today. On another level, however, it's about anyone who doesn't fit in, like the anti-hero of Albert Camus' "The Stranger."

This will not appeal to readers looking for appealing, sympathetic characters, or a straightforward narrative. Kosinski's world view is pretty bleak, although it's not as intensely apocalyptic as his next two books, "Cockpit", and "Blind Date," which are truly horrific. But Kosinski's spare, lean prose and his perceptive observations on many details of American life more than compensate for the self-absorption and anomie of his characters. It's certainly far more interesting than his limp "Pinball" and the unreadable "Hermit of 69th St."

(It's worth noting that Kosinski committed suicide in 1991. The revelation that his novels had been written with the aid of uncredited editors --- Kosinski's native language was Polish, and he never completely mastered written English --- may have been a contributing factor, as was the discovery that the story of "The Painted Bird", long presented by Kosinski as autobiographical fact, was in reality pure fiction. Then again, his unrelentingly dismal world view may have been his ultimate undoing.)

The format is unusual having no chapters but rather a series of short vignetts in first and third person voices with no set sequence as to their inclusion into the framework of the story. At first I found this style to be somewhat off putting but long before the end of the work I warmed to this method of story telling. Altogether Kosinski shows us his ability to engage the reader in what turns out to be a delightful read.

In college, I read Kosinski's novel *Being There* and was very impressed by its themes around solipcism and the society that is more interested in superficialities than substance and the subsequent dangers thereof. In this interesting novel, *The Devil Tree*, written a couple years later, Kosinski looks at another character who has some similarities to the main character, Chauney Gardner, from *Being There*. However, this time around, the hero, Jonathan Whalen, is an extremely weathly individual who can indulge in caprice, but who seems to not be satisified with the privileges that money can afford. He has sought travel, drugs, sex, and consumerism, but ultimately is unhappy or at least not fulfilled. Kosinski uses an interesting technique by providing separated paragraphs to serve as individual snapshots of Jonathan's thoughts, worries, insecurities an ennui. While the whole tone of psychological self-discovery and search for meaning is now a bit dated, the actual revelations of Jonathan concerning his relationships with his parents, his lovers and others around him are of great interest. There are some poignant sections looking at his adolscent angst, as well as others that protray humor in some of his dealings in self-gratification. However, the group-therapy scenes do become somewhat tedious with the continual back and forth conversations which try to convey a sense of individuals struggling to delve deeper into their individual and community psyches. His unfulfilling and unsatisfactory relationship with Karen is frustrating, but Karen's discovery of her relationship with men and sex most likely made this novel a welcome addition to women's liberation literature in the early '70s. Although the novel seemed to reek of the 70s sense of "finding one's self" (and some may really enjoy that nostalgia), most readers will truly appreciate Kosinski's call for individual authenticity in the face of societal mediocrity and lethargy.

In Kosinski's DEVIL TREE the reader follows the life of Jonathan Whalen, looking for a clue to where this tale is headed. But this character study leads nowhere. It is the study of an anarchistic mind.

The tale has no chapters, no parts, no order, which is fine except that it also lacks any direction. The tale consisted of snippets possessing no rhyme nor reason. Bits of dreams were interlaced with grim anecdotes that the reader could only hope to be fictional. Jonathan was a terribly over-cerebral man, not unlike Kosinski himself. Jonathan was on a search to understand the substance of his past. He sought total control of his emotions but remained forever detached from these emotions. He even tried to control his periods of depression and sickness. Attending an encounter group was useless to him for all he could see , by himself & others, was role playing and dishonesty.

Jonathan could suck no nourishment from life. His slant on life was, 'most people are simply searching for an activity to label their existence.' Reared under the shadow of his fabulously rich father, who he only sought to appease, this same motive colored any relationship he tried with a woman. Never able to settle for being one person, he became an "in-between-man." He could stay neither hostile nor sympathetic toward anyone. Jonathan declared, "...living is an arbitrary matter and I have every right to renounce it." Happily, there was only one Kosinski!

I have read most of Kosinski's works of fiction, and I must say that this is one of my favorites. It is more along the lines of Steps or The Cockpit, but it is a little more experimental in its story telling. There are different narrators, both first and third person, who tell the story of a very wealthy young man's journey through life. Like the characters in Steps and The Cockpit, Waylen is very self absorbed and often performs horrifying acts of revenge on those who get in his way. I would recommend this book to anyone.

It seemed to me at the time I read it, that is was a journey into something, maybe depravity? And then I loaned it to someone else and while they had it I realized what that journey was in reference to me. ( all things obviously being subject to personal view based on experience and genetics ) It was about growing backwards, upside down, the definition of the tree itself. In the beginning, Whalen had the answers, he started as a complete person, and degenerated, grew backwards, almost as if he had been born a man and moved backwards into childhood confusion. He was continually losing himself, trying to lose himself. So perhaps it says that man is meant to be lost? to stay forever in childhood? he is meant to know only those things he is born with? Simplicity.

The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski is one of my all time favorite books, so, after reading it, I was anxious to check out another of his titles. I was disappointed with the Devil Tree. I had a hard time getting through it. I kept getting the distinct impression that it's meaning and signifigance were going over my head. I would love to hear another reader's opinion. If you came away from The Devil Tree with a different impression than I did, or you would just like to converse about it, I'd be happy to hear from you.