Vietnam-era novel wins National Book Award

Denis Johnson’s “Tree of Smoke,” a 600-page journey through the physical, moral and spiritual extremes of the Vietnam War and its aftermath, won the National Book Award for fiction Wednesday night.

“I’m very sorry to miss this one chance to dress up in a tuxedo in front of so many representatives in the worlds of literature, and say thank you to the people who have given me my life,” the author said in a statement read by his wife, Cindy.

Johnson, 58, who lives in New Mexico, rarely talks to the media and is on assignment in Iraq.

Other National Book Award winners, each of whom received $10,000, were: Tim Weiner’s “Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA” for nonfiction, Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” for young people’s literature and Robert Hass’ “Time and Materials” for poetry.

Joan Didion and the host of National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air,” Terry Gross, were presented honorary medals. Didion paid tribute to author Norman Mailer, a National Book Award medalist in 2005.

Mailer, who died Saturday at age 84, was “someone who really . . . knew what writing was for,” Didion said. Mailer also was praised by Hass, who recalled giving a poetry reading decades ago at Mailer’s home and how “enormously generous he was to young writers.”

Johnson’s novel, which he has said he conceived in the early 1980s, has been widely praised since it was published this fall. It tells of spies, counterspies and others caught up in the blur and horror of Vietnam, from the day after President Kennedy was shot to the early 1980s.

Alexie, best known for adult novels and short story collections, recalled being inspired by Ezra Jack Keats’ children’s classic “The Snowy Day.”

The National Book Awards are sponsored by the nonprofit National Book Foundation.