Point of View

“The Laughing Monsters” by Denis Johnson is told in the first person from the perspective of the protagonist, Roland Nair. Nair is on a mission from the NIIA (NATO Intelligence Interoperability Architecture). Although the organization is an intelligence-gathering unit of NATO, Roland is not a spy – at least officially. Roland tells the story of his relationship over a shadowy, volatile and somewhat mysterious character, Michael Adriko. Roland is assigned to merely watch the activities of Michael who, among other issues, is AWOL from the U.S. military. Roland’s job is to report on Michael’s activities but it is destiny that Roland becomes more involved than anyone had planned. The Americans are worried about Roland’s movements due to his boasting about selling enriched uranium. Since this story is post-9/11, anyone involved with such dark dealings is a suspicious actor. Roland, of course, does...