The Laughing Monsters

A Novel

By: Denis Johnson

Narrated by: Scott Shepherd

Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Denis Johnson's New York Times bestseller, The Laughing Monsters, is a high-suspense tale of kaleidoscoping loyalties in the post-9/11 world that shows one of our great novelists at the top of his game.

Roland Nair calls himself Scandinavian but travels on a U.S. passport. After ten years' absence, he returns to Freetown, Sierra Leone, to reunite with his friend Michael Adriko. They once made a lot of money here during the country's civil war, and, curious to see whether good luck will strike twice in the same place, Nair has allowed himself to be drawn back to a region he considers hopeless.

Adriko is an African who styles himself a soldier of fortune and who claims to have served, at various times, the Ghanaian army, the Kuwaiti Emiri Guard, and the American Green Berets. He's probably broke now, but he remains, at thirty-six, as stirred by his own doubtful schemes as he was a decade ago.

Although Nair believes some kind of money-making plan lies at the back of it all, Adriko's stated reason for inviting his friend to Freetown is for Nair to meet Adriko's fiancée, a grad student from Colorado named Davidia. Together the three set out to visit Adriko's clan in the Uganda-Congo borderland—but each of these travelers is keeping secrets from the others. Their journey through a land abandoned by the future leads Nair, Adriko, and Davidia to meet themselves not in a new light, but rather in a new darkness.

©2014 Denis Johnson (P)2014 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Johnson's tenth novel is a stunner: the story of Roland Nair, a rogue intelligence agent looking to make a big score in Sierra Leone amid the detritus and chaos of the post-war-on-terrorism world. Johnson's sentences are always brilliant, but it is in the interstices, the gray areas of the story, that he really excels.” —David Ulin, Los Angeles Times

“The single catastrophe is what fuels that demands and mysteries of literature. The wreckage is what essential writers particularize, and Denis Johnson's interests have always beenin wreckage, both individual and universal. If Train Dreams (a Pulitizer finalist) dealt with the dignified tragedy of a past American antonym, The Laughing Monsters addresses the vanishing present, a giddy trickle-down of global exploitation and hubris--the farcical exploits of cold dudes in a hard land.” —Joy Williams, The New York Times Book Review

“National Book Award winner Denis Johnson has brilliantly plumbed the mystical and the macabre in such works as Tree of Smoke and his instant classic Jesus' Son. The Laughing Monsters delivers a more commercial, post-9/11 tale of intrigue, deception, romance, and misadventure set in West Africa without losing Johnson's essentially poetic drive . . . With each twist, Johnson deftly ups the stakes while adding to the cavalcade of entrepreneurs, assassins, seers, and smugglers that populate the book, tuning us in to the roiling political realities and cultural complexities of Africa today . . . —Lisa Shea, Elle

Africa’s dark underbelly

I adore Denis Johnson, and he does not disappoint in this grittily detailed account of a shady get-rich-quick scheme in western, then eastern Africa. As always, his characters come alive in their seedy dedication to an outsider’s code of honor and the lengths they go to uphold it!

Good

Very Graham Greene; this would be a good follow up to "the quiet american, " by the same. I found the main character to be similar, but too respectable. Its quick though, and fun, so definitely give it a shot. The narration is strong.

Not for the faint of heart

Denis Johnson (RIP) is a great writer...brilliant story teller presents a pain of rogue spies...in the Congo...bouncing around in danger that you can taste and smell...Has the requisite ultra-v going much of the time but paints some characters that one can care about...and feel for...if that makes any sense. Anyway...if you don't like it...return it. I liked the book and the reader.

One Man's Self-Designed Heart of Darkness

Brilliantly written, wonderful (as they are unlikeable) characters. Reads as a hellish travelogue. It's a pseudo-spy novel, more interested in self loathing than in byzantine plot devices.

I think some people might be put off by some of the politics expressed in the piece, but I think Johnson (and the piece) draw a distinction between what the protagonist (and perspective-character) wants/thinks and what the world is. It was a clear deliniation for me, at least-- don't need to launch into a whole dang thinkpiece here in the reviews.

Very good piece, as you'd expect from Denis Johnson (the only reason it's 4 instead of 5 stars is because I'm not in love with the very tail-end. I expect this may be a taste thing though).

Scott Shepherd's performance is fantastic. Acted just enough to be evocative without being distracting (and acted incredibly well, too). Just damn great.

Great book, annoying 'voices'

The book was great. Exciting journey through Africa. Amazing writing. Relevant to today's American security/secrecy debates. My only complaint is the narrator did the obnoxious voices for all the characters. Some of the voices made no sense. One main character, a Congolese man raised in Africa, had this ridiculous Sean Connery swashbuckler accent. I would think this company would be better off instructing there narrators to read voices in their normal reading voice and let the listener fill in the blank, so to speak.

Waste of time

I felt like I was drugged listening to this book. Still working to figure it out. I read a review in a magazine and picked it up but that was a miss. 6 hours now gone