Somehow, despite being an English major in college and a big reader my whole life, this is a classic I had never heard of or come across. I discovered it in a very weird way, which I’ll detail after my brief review. (Isn’t reviewing classics weird? What else can you add to the narrative?) This finalist for the Pulitzer is a vibrant, gripping meditation on war, specifically, the Vietnam War, and I’m glad it’s been a focus in the American education system over the years, and I’m glad I read it now.
O’Brien served in the Vietnam War and so this collection of short stories is a blending of fact and fiction, it’s hard to know where Tim O’Brien author ends and Tim O’Brien soldier begins. He masterfully creates a narrative of his fellow soliders in the Alpha company, the horrors of war, the heartbreak of death, and the complicated lives of those who survived. The stories vary in theme and length which makes it easy to absorb a story in a single sitting, and take some time to ponder. The one that stuck out the most to me is of his friend who, after the war, returned home and spent most of his evenings circling his small town in a pick-up truck, as an observer of everything going on, and now a person who didn’t quite know where he belonged, or how to be a part of it.
And now, join me on a weird journey about how I came to read this book.
I was looking high and low for a book about a good stepmother, because anything that isn’t the “stepmothers are the worst” message is hard to come by, and as a stepmom, I’m eager for postive representation. According to Chatgpt, one of the short stories in this collection had a stepmother in it, Nana, the stepmother of Tim O’Brien. I read 3/4 of the book and then decided to skip ahead to the story that Chatgpt said had the stepmother character in it. And wouldn’t you know it…no where to be found. Best I can find, Tim O’Brien doesn’t even have a stepmomther. When asked, Chatgpt admitted it had made an error. I hazard to say I’m probably the only person who picked up the book for this reason, but I’m glad to have experienced it.