AP English Language and Composition

“About Tim O’Brien: A Profile”O’Brien primarily a writer of fictionVowed to stop writing fiction in 1994; a few months later, published a famous essay in the NYT describing his return to My Lai, site of a four hour massacre

From 1969-1970, O’Brien was an infantryman in the Quang Ngai province; his platoon was stationed in My Lai a year after the massacre

Background on Tim O’BrienThen and now, he could feel evil in My Lai

In the NYT cover story, O’Brien draws parralels between the “guilt, depression, terror, shame” that infects his Vietnam experience and present life

Contemplates suicideO’Brien writes in the article, “Last night suicide was on my mind. Not whether, but how.”

Background on Tim O’BrienBorn in 1946Raised in small-town MinnesotaFather was an insurance salesmanMother an elementary school teacher

As a child, O’Brien was lonely, overweight, and a “dreamer”

Practiced magic tricks

Background on Tim O’BrienHad political aspirations going into college

Became a political science major at Macalester

Attended peace vigils and war protests

Planned to join the State Department to reform its policies

Background on Tim O’BrienDrafted as an infantryman upon graduation

Seriously considered deserting to Canada

Now thinks it was cowardly not to desert to Canada, but in 1968, he feared the disapproval of family and friends

Tim O’Brien, after the war…Received a Purple Heart after being wounded by shrapnel from a hand grenade

Pursued a doctorate at the Harvard School of Government

Began writing his first book, If I Die in Combat, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home, while at Harvard

Tim O’Brien, after the war…If I Die in Combat published in 1973Became national affairs reporter for The Washington Post

Writes several more books including The Nuclear Age in 1985 and TTTC in 1990.

TTTC finalist for Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award

Tim O’Brien, after the war…Latest novel, In the Lake of the

WoodsConsiders this his best work yetWrites every day, all day; known for

being meticulous, fanaticalSome editors and critics suggest he

should move on from VietnamWill most likely continue to write

about the war

Love and WarHis books are universalWar stories as much as love storiesO’Brien says, “I’ve had the twins of love and evil. They intertwine and intermix. They’ll separate, sometimes, yet they’re hooked the way valances are hooked together. The emotions in war and in our ordinary lives are, if not identical, damn similar.”

Tim O’Brien Then and Now

Note: Information taken from Ploughshares, the

Literary Journal at Emerson CollegeWritten by Don Lee (http://www.pshares.org)