michaelsnyder
07-07-2008, 01:50 AM
I've heard great things about this book, but only recently picked it up. Now I don't want to put it down.
The writing is brilliant. Really. The blurb on the cover says: "A marvel of storytelling...matters not only to the reader interested in Vietnam but to anyone interested in the craft of writing as well." NY Times
Here's one excerpt (from page 38):
"Forty-three years old, and the war occurred a half a lifetime ago, and yet the remembering makes it now. And sometimes remembering will lead to a story, which makes it forever. That's what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can't remember how you got from where you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story."
And the 'structure/POV' is peculiar. The book jacket calls it novel but it reads like a memoir. It took some digging to realize that it's actually a collection of autobiographical short stories and essays strung together into a novel-esque narrative.
Wikipedia describes the book's form this way:
"...the narrator makes a distinction between "story truth" and "happening truth." O'Brien feels that the idea of creating a story that is technically false yet truthfully portrays war, as opposed to just stating the facts and creating no emotion in the reader, is the correct way to clear his conscience and tell the story of thousands of soldiers who were forever silenced by society..O'Brien's fluid and elliptical negotiation of truth in this context finds echoes in works labeled as 'non-fiction novels.'"
I'm not a big fan of war stories or historical stories, but so far this is a riveting read. O'Brien uses simple (yet sometimes harsh) language to paint some of the most vivid word pictures I've ever encountered. In short, the dude can write!
Mike
The writing is brilliant. Really. The blurb on the cover says: "A marvel of storytelling...matters not only to the reader interested in Vietnam but to anyone interested in the craft of writing as well." NY Times
Here's one excerpt (from page 38):
"Forty-three years old, and the war occurred a half a lifetime ago, and yet the remembering makes it now. And sometimes remembering will lead to a story, which makes it forever. That's what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can't remember how you got from where you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story."
And the 'structure/POV' is peculiar. The book jacket calls it novel but it reads like a memoir. It took some digging to realize that it's actually a collection of autobiographical short stories and essays strung together into a novel-esque narrative.
Wikipedia describes the book's form this way:
"...the narrator makes a distinction between "story truth" and "happening truth." O'Brien feels that the idea of creating a story that is technically false yet truthfully portrays war, as opposed to just stating the facts and creating no emotion in the reader, is the correct way to clear his conscience and tell the story of thousands of soldiers who were forever silenced by society..O'Brien's fluid and elliptical negotiation of truth in this context finds echoes in works labeled as 'non-fiction novels.'"
I'm not a big fan of war stories or historical stories, but so far this is a riveting read. O'Brien uses simple (yet sometimes harsh) language to paint some of the most vivid word pictures I've ever encountered. In short, the dude can write!
Mike