Tim O’Brien, the much-lauded author of several books of fiction and non-fiction about the Vietnam War, will speak in Ketchum on Wednesday, March 13 as part of the Sun Valley Center for the Arts Lecture Series.
His three works of fiction about Vietnam—Going After Cacciato, In the Lake of the Woods and The Things They Carried—have won a slew of prestigious awards, including a National Book Award and the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction. The Things They Carried was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
The Vietnam War is a recurring subject for O’Brien, who served in Vietnam from 1968 to 1970. Upon completing his tour of duty, O'Brien went to graduate school at Harvard University. In 1973 he published his first book, the autobiographical If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home.
But the craft and purpose of writing itself—the telling of stories and the quest to get at the truth of one’s experience—is as much of a subject for O’Brien as the war. The interrelated short stories of his most highly acclaimed book, The Things They Carried, circle around and back to this topic as they tell and retell stories from different points of view, or as the author interrupts or comes back to an incident to correct or change an essential detail.
“That's what fiction is for. It's for getting at the truth when the truth isn't sufficient for the truth,” O’Brien says, referring to the importance of emotional rather than factual truth.
O'Brien lives in Texas, where he has teaches at Texas State University-San Marcos and its MFA program. In 2012 he received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize lifetime achievement award.
The talk will be held at the Presbyterian Church of the Big Wood and starts at 6:30 pm. Tickets are available at www.sunvalleycenter.org for $25 members / $35 nonmembers / $10 students. Tickets can also be purchased by phone at 208.726.9491 ex 10 or stop by The Center in Ketchum.
O’Brien’s visit is part of The Center’s project Home Front, which looks at what “home front” means today in terms of the role of the public in supporting our soldiers abroad and what happens when a soldier returns home. For details about Home Front, which includes visual arts exhibitions in Ketchum and Hailey and a talk by Admiral Jay L. Johnson on April 2, as well as a panel discussion with families affected by deployment on April 4, visit www.sunvalleycenter.org.
