Tim O'Brien

Tim O’Brien was born on October 1, 1946 in Austin, Minnesota. He moved to Worthington, Minnesota when he was twelve with his family: a younger brother and sister and his parents. He got a BA in Political Science Macalester College. He was drafted for the Vietnam War in 1968, and from 1969 to 1970, he was in the Americal Division.

Here are some fun facts about him:

-He used the land around Lake Okabena, the lake near Worthington, as the setting for The Things They Carried (1990).

-He went to graduate school at Harvard after serving in the war.

-His writing career started off with If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home (1973), which is a personal memoir about his experience with war.

-He won the National Book Award in 1979 for his book Going After Cacciato (1978), which is also set during the Vietnam War.

-He currently lives in central Texas where he teaches every other year at the Texas State University in San Marcos.

Other books by this author include:

• Northern Lights (1975)
• Where Have You Gone Charming Billy? (1975)
• The Nuclear Age (1985)
• In the Lake of the Woods (1994)
• Tomcat in Love (1998)
• July, July (2002)

Also, he has written quite a few short stories, which usually end up as different chapters in some of his books. One example that I read was The People We Marry (excerpt prior to In the Lake of the Woods). Another interesting short story is actually the beginning of The Things They Carried. In both of the short stories, the opening sentence really draws you in, which is a really good trait that Tim O'Brien possesses. Also, the end of the short story isn't closed; it doesn't conclude with a "happily ever after," it keeps you wondering about what the author mean in that last sentence. After we discussed the short story In the Land of Men by Antonya Nelson, it got me wondering if the ending sentences, or for that matter, any sentences within these short stories are "loaded" sentences with double meanings. Maybe there are loaded sentences, and maybe there aren't. You'd have to read them to find out...