This book, a collection of connected stories from Tim O'Brien's time in Viet Nam, will tell you many things. How to tell a story. How to tell a war story. How to tell when a story is true. Why we tell stories. It will ask you to consider the nature of courage, and the nature of truth (and I can tell you this: truth is often the wackiest thing). I came of age at the end of Viet Nam, and it was an ugly, haunting war. It left its mark. You feel that in this book. You feel the floating ephemeral smokiness of that time and place, and you understand that Mr. O'Brien is trying to figure out, to lay bare, to make meaning. Fascinating, insightful, spare and wrenching.