Tim O'Brien





Tim O'Brien

Author profile


born
in Minnesota
October 01, 1946

gender
male

website

genre


About this author

Tim O'Brien matriculated at Macalester College. Graduation in 1968 found him with a BA in political science and a draft notice.

O'Brien was against the war but reported for service and was sent to Vietnam with what has been called the "unlucky" Americal division due to its involvement in the My Lai massacre in 1968, an event which figures prominently in In the Lake of the Woods. He was assigned to 3rd Platoon, A Company, 5th Battalion, 46th Infantry, as an infantry foot soldier. O'Brien's tour of duty was 1969-70.

After Vietnam he became a graduate student at Harvard. No doubt he was one of very few Vietnam veterans there at that time, much less Combat Infantry Badge (CIB) holders. Having the opportunity to do an internship at the Washington...more


Average rating: 4.01 · 102,117 ratings · 7,539 reviews · 76 distinct works · Similar authors
The Things They Carried
4.09 of 5 stars 4.09 avg rating — 78,068 ratings — published 1990 — 36 editions
In the Lake of the Woods
3.74 of 5 stars 3.74 avg rating — 7,736 ratings — published 1994 — 20 editions
Going After Cacciato
3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 avg rating — 5,679 ratings — published 1978 — 28 editions
If I Die in a Combat Zone: ...
3.9 of 5 stars 3.90 avg rating — 3,273 ratings — published 1973 — 20 editions
Tomcat In Love
3.35 of 5 stars 3.35 avg rating — 1,979 ratings — published 1998 — 15 editions
July, July
3.4 of 5 stars 3.40 avg rating — 1,613 ratings — published 2002 — 10 editions
The Nuclear Age
3.41 of 5 stars 3.41 avg rating — 594 ratings — published 1985 — 7 editions
Northern Lights
3.3 of 5 stars 3.30 avg rating — 523 ratings — published 1975 — 7 editions
The Things They Carried / I...
4.3 of 5 stars 4.30 avg rating — 116 ratings — published 2011
Naked Vinyl
3.54 of 5 stars 3.54 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 2002
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“A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth.”
Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

“A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue. As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil. ”
Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

“That's what fiction is for. It's for getting at the truth when the truth isn't sufficient for the truth.”
Tim O'Brien

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