But this too is true: stories can save us. I’m forty-three years old, and a writer now, and even still, right here, I keep dreaming Linda alive. And Ted Lavender, too, and Kiowa, and Curt Lemon, and a slim young man I killed, and an old man sprawled beside a pigpen, and several others whose bodies I once lifted and dumped into a truck. They’re all dead. But in a story, which is kind of dreaming, the dead sometimes smile and sit up and return […]
“They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried.”
700 Sundays by Billy Crystal must be an absolutely astounding audio book because I can’t imagine what it must have taken to beat out Bryan Cranston’s reading of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. I was so convinced it was award worthy that I went looking it up and was sadly disappointed. This audio experience was one of the most affecting I’ve experienced, and Cranston’s work is simply masterful. Tim O’Brien, through the way he weaves his narrative as beautifully read by Cranston (I know […]
Stories Can Save Us
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a collection of short stories that revolve about a group of soldiers in the Vietnam War. The most interesting thing about the book to me is that Tim O’Brien is a Vietnam War veteran and he puts himself into the book as a character. He needs to tell his story, he needs to release the memories and yet, he doesn’t quite want to give a factual account of what happened to him and his friends there. So […]
A fantastic story about stories
Two weekends ago, I went to a conference about 5 ½ hours away from my house (300 miles, I think? I’m so American for thinking in hours and minutes…). To prepare, I decided it would be time to reinstate my habit of listening to audiobooks. Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried caught my eye, because it’s one of The Chancellor’s all-time favorite books. And then, I saw the narrator for the audiobook and instantly decided that yes, I needed to read it. You guys, BRYAN […]