O'Brien

[Bonnie Surfus (ENG)]

On Fri, 14 Jun 1996, Wolfe, Skip wrote:

> 
> >>While i agree with previous contributors that Tim O'Brien is an
> >>excellent writer writing about Vietnam, i'm not sure he (or anyone
> >>else) has yet to produce the "great vietnam war novel".  Cacciato,
> >>The Things they Carried and In the Lake of the Woods all are about a
> >>people who were in Vietnam, but his best writing is about characters
> >>dealing with the aftermath of Vietnam--Stone's "Dog Soldiers" is much
> >>the same way...There is however, imho, a great vietnam movie, which
> >>is apocalypse now (i know some people don't like coppola's stuff, but
> >>i think, intentionally or not, it is one of the few films about any
> >>war that is successfully unsentimental...)
> 
> I agree with Aaron.  I think "Apocalypse Now" is the only film (that I've 
> seen, at least) that captures the surreal atmosphere of Vietnam -- the sort 
> of "Ballad of a Thin Man" feeling that something was happening, but nobody 
> knew exactly what.  My favorite Vietnam story, for what it's worth, is 
> O'Brien's "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" from _The Things They Carried_ 
> wherein he takes an improbable (well, pretty much impossible) premise and 
> makes a story out of it that in some oblique way says a lot about the 
> vietnam experience.  By the way, O'Brien's _If I Die in a Combat Zone_ is 
> good nonfiction about Nam, as is the aforementioned _Dispatches_ by Michael 
> Herr.
> 
>      Skip Wolfe
>      crw4 at nip1.em.cdc.gov
> 
> 
Wouldn't you say that GOING AFTER CACCIATO was surreal?  Wouldn't you also
say that O'brien "takes an improbable  . . . premise and makes a story out
of it that in some oblique way says a lot about the vietnam experience"???

guess I'm defensive about it.  It seemed, to me, a wonderfully realistic
surrealism (I know, but it's what I mean)--I mean, he actually does
capture the absurdity of the war in the character of Cacciato, his
actions, his influence on his comrades--the unlikely prospect of just
walking away from the war--to Paris, no less?  (sorry, getting carried
away I realize I'm taking awful liberties with the dash--).  In many ways,
I was reminded of SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE while reading GAC, and, well,
that novel (SF) has always been a fav.

Bonnie