Fiction

This sprawling, acid-mad Vietnam novel, which won the National Book Award, is Denis Johnson at his visionary best: muscle-bound prose, Mistah-Kurtz characters, and a Byzantine military-intelligence clubhouse that even Yossarian of "Catch 22" would find daunting. Johnson captures the rock'n'roll hubris of the Vietnam War and visits it upon a full-throttle plot of sinister intrigue. His memorable cast includes an aging CIA cowboy, retired from Psy Ops, who sustains himself with old football memories and Bushmills whiskey.

—Gail Caldwell / Globe Staff

Best of fiction | Best of nonfiction