“I was fortunate enough to have met Tim O'Brien shortly after the release of Tom Foolery, written during his time teaching down in Austin, TX. Had dinner, went to a reading, etc. While it is true that The Things They Carried is a work of fiction, it should be noted that Tim was a grunt in Vietnam. While artistic liberties were taken, at some level he lived what he wrote about. When he was on stage doing his "reading", it was interesting to see that once he got past the second or third line, he never looked back at the book, but went so into character that you could almost smell the musty earth around the rice paddies. He says he's certain his father never read the book or he probably wouldn't be speaking to him...just puts them all on a shelf and occasionally points them out to friends and says, "My son, the author." Very mellow, nice guy.”
posted Thursday, April 3 2008