|
BIO
Tim O'Brien is the author of GOING AFTER CACCIATO, winner of the 1979 National Book
Award in fiction, and THE THINGS THEY CARRIED, which was named by the New York Times as
one of the ten best books of l990, received the Chicago Tribune Heartland Award in
fiction, and was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics
Circle Award. In 1993 the French edition of THE THINGS THEY CARRIED received the
prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger. IN THE LAKE OF THE WOODS was named by Time
magazine as the best novel of 1994. The book also received the James Fenimore Cooper Prize
from the Society of American Historians and was selected as one of the ten best books of
the year by the New York Times. His other books are IF I DIE IN A COMBAT ZONE, NORTHERN
LIGHTS, THE NUCLEAR AGE and GOING AFTER CACCIATO. His two most recent novels, IN THE LAKE OF THE WOODS and TOMCAT IN LOVE, were national bestsellers.
O'Brien's short stories have appeared in Esquire, Harper's, Atlantic, Playboy, Granta, Gentleman's Quarterly, The New Yorker, and in several editions of The O. Henry Prize
Stories, the Pushcart Prize, and Best American Short Stories. In 1987 he received the
National Magazine Award for his story THE THINGS THEY CARRIED, which was also selected for
inclusion in the Best American Short Stories of the Century, edited by John Updike.
O'Brien has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National
Endowment for the Arts.
Back to top.
PAST INTERVIEW - 1998
Tim O'Brien, the crafty and talented author of TOMCAT IN LOVE, talks about life, love,
writing, and the tomcat within us all. If you thought that only men could be
tomcats, you'd be wrong! You won't want to miss O'Brien's wry thoughts about
his main character Tom Chippering, the disarming protagonist of TOMCAT, or anything else
this intriguing and down-to-earth writer has to say.
BRC You are known for dealing with the Vietnam War in your
writing. TOMCAT IN LOVE takes on the war between the sexes. What inspired this
transition?
TO: Though I'm pegged as a "Vietnam
writer," I have never looked at my career in quite that way. I see myself
as a "writer-writer." And like any novelist worth his or her salt -
or worth the high price of a book these days - I try to write about the human heart under
stress. (War is stressful. Love is stressful.) In this
sense, then, TOMCAT IN LOVE represents no fundamental departure for
me. Granted, I set out to write a book that would make people laugh, and
certainly the comedic tone of the novel presented interesting new
challenges. Yet my raw materials remain pretty much the same: the things we
will do to win love, the things we will do to keep love, the things we will do to loves
ourselves.
BRC Do you feel any pressure to repeat the success of IN THE LAKE OF THE
WOODS?
TO: The only real pressure I felt in
writing TOMCAT IN LOVE was the pressure of trying to write a good book. Yes, I
am proud of IN THE LAKE OF THE WOODS. But I must confess that I am super-duper
proud of the imperious, sexist, oblivious, pompous, charming, disgusting, politically
incorrect voice that drives TOMCAT IN LOVE. (Tom Chippering - the hero of this
book - is the sort of person you'd meet at a cocktail party, let's say, and on the drive
home you'd turn to your wife and say, "My God, did you hear that
guy? Somebody should write a novel about him!")
BRC Do you think most men would want to be tomcats if they felt they
could get away with it, or do they really crave the love of one ideal woman?
TO: Well, in my experience both men and
women have miniature tomcats purring away inside them. True, poor Tom
Chippering takes this to a ridiculous (and I hope funny) extreme. But I think
all of us, men and women, will recognize the hunger for love that lies beneath much of
Tom's behavior.
BRC Why are men so afraid of intimacy as opposed to sex or love?
TO: Why are women so afraid of
intimacy?
BRC There is an obvious question here. What are the parallels between
you and Thomas Chippering?
TO: I guess we've all done contemptible,
ridiculous, and sometimes funny things in the name of love. I don't exclude
myself. But if you want the inside scoop, the character of Tom Chippering is
actually based on you.
BRC Your books ask more questions than they answer. Is writing, for you,
a vehicle for making sense of things?
TO: A good piece of fiction, in my view,
does not offer solutions. Good stories deal with our moral struggles, our
uncertainties, our dreams, our blunders, our contradictions, our endless quest for
understanding. Good stories do not resolve the mysteries of the human spirit
but rather describe and expand up on those mysteries.
BRC Your books, and their characters, display a certain amount of moral
ambiguity --- a sense of this is true but that also is true --- or both could be true at
the same time. Does this reflect your personal philosophy?
TO: Yes. Truth
evolves. Truth is fluid. Truth is a function of
language. (If I were to say to you, "It's now 10:00 A.M.," I would be
telling the "truth" of Boston, Massachusetts, but not the "truth" of
Tokyo, Japan.) A lie, sometimes, can be truer than the truth, which is why
fiction gets written.
BRC In "If I Die In A Combat Zone," you write, "Can the
foot soldier teach anything important about war? I think not. He can
tell war stories." But "The Things They Carried" is largely a
collection of stories that personalized the Vietnam war in a way that few other writers
were able to do. Aren't those stories, ultimately, more important than the
factual accounts of war?
TO: Factual accounts of war can be
wonderful. Witness Michael Herr's DISPATCHES. (The issue of what is
"fact" and what is "fiction" may often prove troublesome, of
course.) Ultimately, in my opinion, what matters is not "fact" versus
"fiction," but rather the power of good story, well told, to squeeze the
reader's heart.
BRC I know you visited Vietnam a few years ago. Could you
comment on that experience?
TO: No. I have said all I wish
to say.
BRC Do you think you will ever have any closure on your Vietnam
experience?
TO: No. It's a little like
asking Joseph Conrad if he will ever find closure on being a sea captain. Or
asking Toni Morrison if she will ever find closure on being black.
BRC TOMCAT IN LOVE is a very different novel from your earlier
books. What other topics are you planning on exploring?
TO: I'm superstitious about talking about
works-in-progress. Or even ideas-in-progress. By saying too much ---
or perhaps anything at all --- a writer can "freeze" the development of a story,
setting in public concrete. I'd better stay quiet.
BRC Are there writers you particularly admire?
TO: Many. Problem is, for every
wonderful writer I might mention there is one or another I will neglect to
mention. I've stopped making lists.
BRC Have you been influenced by any writers?
TO: Yes. (Borges. Conrad. The
Brothers Grimm. Whoever wrote the Hardy Boys series.) But the huge
"influence," finally, is the life that surrounds me - people, places,
events.
BRC Are you working on anything right now?
TO: Sort of. Mostly
thinking. I'll be on a book tour for TOMCAT until November, and for the time
being I want to do all I can to ease Tom Chippering into the waking world. God
knows, he needs all the help he can get.
BRC What are you reading at the moment?
TO: My tour schedule.
© Copyright 1996-2009, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
Back to top.
|
