Tim O'Brien is widely acclaimed as our finest chronicler of the Vietnam War and its afermath. In his ambitious, compassionate, and terrifically com...
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Mar 03, 2009
Natalye
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I absolutely love Tim O'Brien's writing. I have never been much of a fan of war movies or memoirs, but ever since my sophomore year English teacher taught a unit on war and we read "The Things They Carried" I have enjoyed his work, in spite of such an evident focus on Vietnam. Something about his language is so comfortable to read, and always has some sense of nostalgia, no matter how grand or minute. Additionally, he pays a great attention to character development and can juggle many
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Oct 19, 2011
Barksdale
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There are bits and pieces of enjoyable writing interspersed in not very interesting scenes from a college reunion (30th?) of the class of 1969, who went to a small liberal arts college in Minnesota where they protested the war and had boyfriends and girlfriends. I found the reunions scenes not credible, as I have been to reunions and as far as I could tell, everybody wasn't scheming over large amounts of vodka to sleep with someone they had pined for all these years. But there are some credibl
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May 04, 2011
Sharon
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This book deals with a group of friends from the class of '69 of Darton College who come together in July 2000 for a class reunion. The friends have complex relationships with each other and that complexity plays itself out once again as they gather to enjoy each other's company once again. The hopes and dreams most of them had in '69 have gone far afield from their original plans. As they reconnect with each, O'Brien deals with the inner struggle of each character as they attempt to find red
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Oct 14, 2009
Debbi
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At first glance, JULY, JULY might appear to be little more than a rehash of the movie The Big Chill. From the start, you know the characters have gathered for a college reunion of the class of 1969, and one of them (a woman named Karen) has been murdered. The resemblance is uncanny. However, such a comparison would do the book a huge disservice.
Like The Big Chill, this book is an ensemble piece. None of the characters truly seem to dominate it, although the story starts off with Amy Ro More...
Like The Big Chill, this book is an ensemble piece. None of the characters truly seem to dominate it, although the story starts off with Amy Ro More...
Apr 24, 2010
Amy
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Tim O'Brien is a storyteller and this book showcases his ability in a different way than Going After Cacciato or The Things They Carried. He follows a cohort, the class of '69 from Darton Hall (clearly a remake of his Alma Mater, Macalester). We are granted the unique perspective of knowing their past, present and everything in between; we watch them play Monday Morning Quarterback, lamenting their lives and the choices they've made and what they've become. For some, the reunion is a chance t
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Jun 12, 2007
Jessica
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Ok, so everyone loves The Things they Carried... I think it's great too, but this one is awesome. O'brien usually deals with some nuance of war, and this is the first book where he really just talks about people...Alumni to be exact of college...at a reunion... middle aged alumni... and O'brien uses all the dry sarcasm and humor in his power to make this one eye-catching and mind-bending at the same time. Makes me wonder where I'll be in 20 years...
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Oct 10, 2011
Caroline
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While the overall quality of the writing was good, as one would expect from Tim O'Brien, the content was a little harder to swallow. The graduating class that he describes in this book has suffered all the harshness adulthood had to offer a generation of kids who believed they would be idealists forever. However, given that he usually writes about Vietnam and its veterans, anybody in the book who was not in Vietnam came across almost a little whiny. It's hard to sympathize with the plight of a n
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Apr 04, 2009
Cardee
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Oh wow! I'm not sure why I'm just now getting around to reading this one, but boy (!), am I happy that I did. I read it in one sitting and even now, a few days later, I can't get over how wonderfully he captured the spectrum of emotions behind a reunion--the excitement, recklessness, tragic onslaught of nostalgia, the beauty, the grace, the terribleness. Parts of this and certain characters are so well executed, they are brutal. Only now, away from the manuscript, do I see the intense ange
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Aug 09, 2009
Dawn
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The characters are interesting and I love O'Brien's writing style. It is a pretty dark book for summer reading. I knew it would be going in though.
What really struck me is how O'Brien manipulates the way I read. He alternates between characters - each in longish chapter. By the end, he is alternating almost by sentence. So in the beginning the distance between the characters, the past and their present seemed so great and by the end, time was flying. Sort of like life - somet More...
What really struck me is how O'Brien manipulates the way I read. He alternates between characters - each in longish chapter. By the end, he is alternating almost by sentence. So in the beginning the distance between the characters, the past and their present seemed so great and by the end, time was flying. Sort of like life - somet More...
Jan 13, 2009
A.J.
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So here's the thing: there was this war, and lots of people didn't like it, and they all wore clothes with psychedelic flowers on them and believed in high ideals. And then they got older and, while staring at their navels, noted the absence of said psychedelic flowers, and lamented their lost youth and banjaxed ideals. And they thought this was all tremendously important, because it had something to do with their navels, at which they spent a great deal of time staring, and anything that so man
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May 16, 2007
John
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I don't paticular find narritives that are based on people living in or had lived in the sixties entertaining. I am of the generation that was raised by the Great Defiers and I must say, they have done a spectacular job of bettering the world as they matured out of being idealistic narcotic lovers and into hedonistic materialists!
The one exception, beyond nonfictional civil rights narritives, I will read with full vigour is novels by Tim O'Brien. This an author who understand how to More...
The one exception, beyond nonfictional civil rights narritives, I will read with full vigour is novels by Tim O'Brien. This an author who understand how to More...
Jun 26, 2009
Damon
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I never actually started this, it's just been sitting in my bedside reading pile. So off it goes to "to-read" for now...
Okay, now I actually started it, so back it goes. So far, it could have waited a while longer.
Alright, now that I'm done - I feel like I'm a bit too young for this book. Kind of surprisingly I can relate to the characters in the more overtly Viet Nam stuff O'Brien writes than in this. The characters in this all are part of the class that graduated from More...
Okay, now I actually started it, so back it goes. So far, it could have waited a while longer.
Alright, now that I'm done - I feel like I'm a bit too young for this book. Kind of surprisingly I can relate to the characters in the more overtly Viet Nam stuff O'Brien writes than in this. The characters in this all are part of the class that graduated from More...
Sep 21, 2011
Lisa
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I liked the shifting POV's in this book, but had to resist the urge to roll my eyes at some of the dialogue. I don't know if I can pick a favorite part or even a favorite character, but I can definitely say that O'Brien has written a cast that will keep wandering around in my head for a while.
Like the way he writes, like the stories and the characters, I'll come back for more.
Recommended if you like your fiction wandering and made up more of characters than a single plot lin
Like the way he writes, like the stories and the characters, I'll come back for more.
Recommended if you like your fiction wandering and made up more of characters than a single plot lin
Oct 08, 2009
Annie
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Perhaps because I read this while attending the same college as Mr. O'Brien did (although he uses a fictional college he's clearly writing about the one he went to), I felt like I knew the settings and I knew the type of people he was trying to illustrate into compelling characters. I think he missed. He was trying to write about a memory, a feeling, nostalgia, and when you're living it and there you can tell he's grasping. It just could have been SO much better and wasn't.
Jan 07, 2011
Denae
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One of my favorite books by Tim O'Brien. This centers around a former high school class at their reunion and all the ways they've both changed and stayed the same, from the former radical who became an upper middle class housewife to the Vietnam veteran who hears a radio broadcast in his head. Haunting and tragic, this also has all the classic O'Brien elements of humor in chaos and is ultimately very human. Not one of his best, but it resonated with me.
May 09, 2011
Rodney
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Tim O'Brien may be my favorite author, but overall this book was a disappointment for me. I know some have compared it to the Big Chill and others, however there was something different for me. I didn't like the characters. I found everyone of them to be the stereotypical 60's narcissistic vision.
All generations look back and realize their lives have changed since college. It's called maturity.
The book is an enjoyable read and I'll always be in line to get O'Brien's wo More...
All generations look back and realize their lives have changed since college. It's called maturity.
The book is an enjoyable read and I'll always be in line to get O'Brien's wo More...
Jan 09, 2011
Jaclin
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I love Tim O'Brien, so I expected a lot from this book. It was pretty great, but I still like In the Lake of the Woods a lot better! There were a lot of characters in July, July, and I liked many of the characters. I cared about them, just as I do with other O'Brien stuff. Pretty much the only reason I gave this a 3 is because I didn't like it as much as his other works. Still worth the read, though!
Jan 31, 2012
Jesse
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This book is a big departure, in my view, from Tim O'Brien's other works. In July, July, the Vietnam war takes a supporting role, not a starring one, as O'Brien paints a picture of a dissatisfied and disaffected generation - the young men and women who came of age in 1969.
The narrative follows the 30th reunion of a fictional college outside of the Twin Cities. The main characters all stew in the imperfection of their own lives, and reminisce about the "better days" of their More...
The narrative follows the 30th reunion of a fictional college outside of the Twin Cities. The main characters all stew in the imperfection of their own lives, and reminisce about the "better days" of their More...
Nov 11, 2010
Rjchaussee
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This is my 3rd book by O'Brien and I do enjoy his writing and his off beat humor.
I found it a little cumbersome keeping up with the characters and kept thinking there must
be some sort of boring uncomplicated people at that reunion. Perhaps there was just a little
too much angst for me.
However, their stories definitely held my interest
I found it a little cumbersome keeping up with the characters and kept thinking there must
be some sort of boring uncomplicated people at that reunion. Perhaps there was just a little
too much angst for me.
However, their stories definitely held my interest
Feb 23, 2009
Bonnie G
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Of course this book was interesting to me since the main characters are my age and went to college in Minnesota. But beyond that, I was taken by their probing thoughts about themselves woven through a banal event: a class reunion. I don't recall anyone in my class appealing to me the way these people seem to be entangled, but I loved following their convoluted emotions. Not a challenging book, but fun to read if you came of age in the 1960s.
Jun 19, 2011
Bryan
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Wow! This book was absolutely amazing. Set around a college class reunion, this book follows ten characters as they reignite old flames, question their major life decisions, and cope with the loss of their better years. Alternating between chapters set at the reunion and character-designated chapters set in the past, this book presents a story that is true to life and is a definite page-turner.
Sep 25, 2009
Natalie
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O'Brien never ceases to suprise me. This was a cleverly done and well written piece that takes characterization to a whole new level. Each character lets us into a slice of their life via a college reunion. We get to find out what thy used to do and where they ended up in life and how they want to change it. Vivid and memorable characters as well as a nicely paced and intertwined plot about the "lost generation".
Aug 06, 2011
This was my college class too. My reunions are never this wild, we just stay up talking till we fall over. A lot of drinking, drugs, regret, and hope in the book. Very well written. gives vignettes of the reunion and of the lives of the characters prior to the reunion. Worthwhile read
Jun 27, 2009
Lauren
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
May 27, 2010
Marguerite
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This is the perfect beach book for boomers: entertaining and a super-fast read without much depth. And, I mean that in a good way. Most of the characters are caricatures. Tim O'Brien is annoyingly coy at times (trying to keep the reader guessing at the sexes of the alumni hooking up). The story also jumps back and forth in time, sometimes abruptly. One thing missing: people's obsessions about their appearance around reunion time. (I have male and female friends who've "trained" for suc
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Jul 22, 2009
Paula
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I'm not sure how I feel about this book, so I guess if I have to think about it, I must not have liked the book. One of my students bought it and read it after the class was assigned to read Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. This student ("JJ"), really liked TTTC so he went to the bookstore to buy another O'Brien book. In the week that it took me to read it, every time I saw JJ I told him how miffed I was that he, a 17-year old kid, would've bought such a book. It was definite
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Nov 18, 2010
John
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I love the way the story was told by skipping back and forth from 1969 to the present day. Although not as thought provoking as his other works, this one still manage to create empathy for the character whose lives were all impacted by the Vietnam war.
Jul 26, 2011
Kurt
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O'Brien is mostly able to depart from his standard "I went to Vietnam and never fully came home" story with a tender collection of stories about classmates who have led very different lives (including, yes, at least one who went to Vietnam and never fully came home).
Oct 26, 2009
Eric
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Tim O'Brien hhas such a gift for detailing the emotions that we are never able to surrender. In this book he focuses on regret, self-loathing and an inability to change the damage that the characters have each incurred.
Apr 10, 2008
Michael
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This is a very good book, albeit melancholic. Like all his other work Tim O'Brien displays outstanding craftsmanship. His writing is elegant and plain spoken. It is never coy or cloying. The book centers on a 30th college class reunion which re hashes the fall out of the late sixties. . . the Viet Nam war, the cultural rebellion, the hopes and fears of that generation. It is sort of like "The Big Chill" on steroids. Although the tone is pensive and the effect somewhat melancholic
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