My interest in Tim
O’Brien’s work originates from my study of Cold War texts over the last six
years in After the Bomb. O’Brien (b. 1946-) was drafted into
the US infantry during the Vietnam War and served in the country during 1969-1970 and later published a memoir If I Die in a Combat Zone (1973) and a
series of novels about his experiences and perceptions of the war.
The range and
complexity of O’Brien’s artistry and shrewd insights into the Vietnam War
certainly establishes him as one of the most important American writers of his
time. As brilliant political journalism, it is difficult to surpass Michael Herr’s Dispatches (1972) or David Halberstam’s The Best and the Brightest (1976).
An evaluation of any
book is always going to be subjective. What I’m essentially looking for in a good bloody read is clarity,
sophistication & unity. I also want to understand and be emotionally
engaged in the conflict in a deeper way through the representation of the
various characters and their experiences. I also want to be entertained, to
keep me guessing what is to happen next. And most of all, I want to vicariously
understand the complexities of war by someone who has been there.
#4 If I Die in a Combat Zone
(1973)
This is an excellent
memoir about Tim O’Brien’s experiences as a grunt during the Vietnam War. He
was drafted into the US Army in 1968 and served for one year. The writing is
intensely personal and is acutely observational with an overarching
philosophical bent. O’Brien explores the nature of goodness, what constitutes a
just war and the nature of courage & war. Comparatively, If I Die in Combat Zone is not as
sophisticated as some of O’Brien’s later, more mature novels, but is a highly
recommended starting point in any close study of the author’s body of work.
Read my full review
here: http://georgedanderson.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/after-bomb-best-cold-war-novels.html
#3 Going After Cacciato (1978)
This is a sprawling,
third person narrative, largely told through the lense of a young US
infantryman, Paul Berlin. After a fellow soldier, Cacciato, leaves the platoon
for a crazy dash for Paris, seven soldiers decide to pursue him through the
mountains and beyond.
The structure of the
novel alternates between the pursuit of Cacciato’s through several countries
and flashbacks to Berlin’s initial recruitment and his various exploits in Nam.
The writing is highly
experimental and often skids the boundary of credibility. The language is an
odd mixture of graphic realism and surreal, often self reflexive post-modernistic bullshit.
What makes this novel enduring is O’Brien’s skill in making profound statements
about the nature & morality of war.
#2 In the Lake of the Woods (1994)
This is Tim O’Brien’s
best crafted novel and is loosely shrouded in the form of a detective novel.
The storyline is focussed around the disappearance of Kathy Wade, the wife of
an aspiring politician, John Wade,
who has recently lost a senatorial race because of the last minute muck-raking
into his dark past as an infantryman in Vietnam.
O’Brien’s
investigations into what represents the truth echo his search for
meaning in some of his earlier work. In this novel he brilliantly layers a swirl of evidence, fictional
conjecture and ambiguity to call into question the nature of reality itself.
I think this is
O’Brien’s best novel but its focus on the Vietnam War is limited. There are many
flashbacks to John Wade’s dark past & these are graphic and memorable. O'Brien takes literary licence in appropriating the massacre of civilians at My Lai in 1968 by C-Company: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre
It is important to note that O'Brien served in the division that was implicated in the My Lai Massacre. He does not appear to have been directly involved in the incident but obviously would have come across the gruesome details through word of mouth.
It is important to note that O'Brien served in the division that was implicated in the My Lai Massacre. He does not appear to have been directly involved in the incident but obviously would have come across the gruesome details through word of mouth.
#1 The Things They Carried (1990)
This novel gets the
nods as O’Brien’s best Vietnam book because of its explicit and extraordinary
insights into the war.
This is an
outstanding collection of short stories, partly-biographical accounts &
notes which capture O’Brien’s process of writing about the Vietnam War twenty
years after his tour of duty ended in 1970. The ‘novel’ blurs the distinction
between fiction and memoir & between experience and the transitory, slippery
nature of the truth. It graphically illustrates an American foot soldier’s
experiences ‘in the boonies’ but it is also about the complex process of
writing.
Read my full review here: http://georgedanderson.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/highly-recommended-tim-obrien-things.html
Find this webpage
devoted to Tim O’Brien’s books: http://www.illyria.com/tobhp.html
