I had been aware of this book for sometime but never really got around to it. Picked it up at HPB a few months ago knowing I should read it at some point and finally did. These are just some of my initial thoughts.
First, a 5/5. It was a really powerful, touching, and well written book. It reminded me a bit of vonnegut in some ways such as the writing style, the black humor, and the use of repetition.
When I started reading it I was at first a little disappointed to find out it was historical fiction but as I made my way through the book I appreciated why he wrote it that way. To paraphrase, "all of it's true and none of it is".
I'm very privileged and fortunate enough to have never had to experience this hardship. I'm going to tread lightly and I mean no ill intentions here but this book helped me empathize more with those who've had these experiences. I certainly will never truly know, but this book really conveyed the emotions, mundaneness, absurdity, and loss of war, to me at least.
I also felt that this book could be read as a little beyond just war stories. "It's nobody's fault. Everybody's." I think this applies to even those outside of a war. No one in particular may be responsible for the harms in our world. Collectively we all are. This may be a bit if a stretch but that's how I interpreted it.
So it goes.
I wrote my master’s thesis on 4 of O’Brien’s novels. I’ve read all of O’Brien’s books and they are all excellent, including his new one, America Fantastica. I think O’Brien is our finest living writer and TTTC is an absolute masterpiece, a work of true genius. It’s perhaps my all-time favorite book. I teach it to my AP English class and I uncover something new with it each year, to the point that I would like to heavily revise my thesis and try to have it published. I was on the right track with my analysis, but I missed a lot. I would love to meet him or attend one of his lectures or something. I’m a huge fan.
As I said in another reply, just go to Texas State University, Flower's Building, and have a smoke with him outside. He will talk your ear off and it is amazing. And, to boot, in Austin, at the Ransom Center are his papers, etc. Right along with DFW. He is the best.
Ahhhhh a dream come true for me. I don’t give a single, solitary care about meeting anyone in Hollywood, but I would be a tongue-tied fangirl if I ever had the chance to have a smoke with one of my heroes.
I could probably find a conference in Austin and go after O’Brien on my district’s dime haha.
Do it! Not many people smoke nowadays, and he wears a Vietman hat and just ... talks. Super cool. There isn't a crowd, most younger folks haven't heard of him (no judgement), so it's him being chill and funny.