One of the best and most powerful books I’ve read in a long time is The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. The story follows Alpha Company, a platoon of seventeen young men, approximately nineteen years old, who serve in the infantry in Viet Nam.
The book pretends to be an autobiography, and part of it is. The futility of trying to separate what is true from what is not is one of the main themes of this novel. Dealing with the fear of death and realizing that “right” and “moral” are concepts that no longer apply are some others.
The strength of O’Brien’s writing is his ability to make the reader feel the ineffable, to understand what is unsayable, to tell a story that elicits strong emotion without causing a turning away. There are twenty-two compelling loosely connected non chronological chapters.
There is the wrenching story of the gifted student who must choose between obeying the draft notice to fight in a war he hates or endure the disapproval of his community and the shame of running away to Canada. There is the young man who makes it back to a home he can’t live in, unable yet desperate to tell what he has done. There are those who are unlucky and die, by chance, but live in the stories their buddies tell.
“And what is the best kind of war story?” O’Brien asks. It is the one that conveys how people felt not what factually happened. “The greatest truth of a war story is the visceral feeling it fosters in the listener/reader.” At this, O’Brien excels.
Although Marjane Satrapi’s, The Complete Persepolis is also an autobiographical story about war it is a totally different presentation. Trained as a graphic artist in Iran and France, she uses this format to tell her story of growing up during the 1979 Iranian revolution and subsequent Iran/Iraq war.
The emphasis is on factual information. But even the graphic novel with its helpful pictures isn’t enough to rescue Satrapi’s confusing treatment of the revolution. Explaining the complexities of overthrowing the shah, how he got into power in the first place, and the takeover by the religious right is too complicated a subject to briskly gallop through.
When Satrapi leaves the history lesson behind and illustrates the effects of war and repression on her family and home in Tehran, her work shines. The story is told from the point of view of a child as she lives through the chaotic times. Her liberal parents, determined not to be cowed, continue to bring up young Marjane as an independent thinker able to speak her mind to anyone. This would be unusual for a child in any locale, but in Iran, at this time, it was dangerous. Her parents decide to send her to school in Vienna.
In the second part of the book, the author details the double difficulties of being an immigrant during adolescence. When she returns home at nineteen, readjustment is equally hard as she tries to find herself amid the many restrictions of an oppressive regime.
Graphic novels are a format not a genre. They use sequential art to tell a story which can be, for example, fiction, non-fiction, historical, or biographical. I’m very glad to have read one as I had previously dismissed them as too juvenile. Some of my co-readers did feel this one was superficial; little motivation is provided and emotions are not subtle. It felt flat and we wondered if it is because the omniscient narrator is missing. On the other hand, the book deals with very serious subjects, war, theocracy, coming of age, assimilation.
I wonder if graphic novels are gaining in popularity because the interest in visuals from computer games is spilling over into books and making pictures a more acceptable form of adult storytelling. First there was the oral story and theater, then the written word, movies, and now, the interactive possibilities of computer games and visual impact of comics and graphic novels. Ways to tell a story evolve and we should be open to occasionally trying new forms – but I won’t be giving up the traditional well-written novel any time soon.
I was reminded recently that dance, specifically hula, and music, are other forms of storytelling, passing legends from generation to generation.
I went to see a new version of the old time Waikiki Kodak hula show. The best part was the “aunties” dressed in their long muumuus singing and playing ukuleles and guitars beneath a mature hala tree. They may have been off key now and then but they were having fun and were the most authentic part of the show.
We saw this poster that promotes an activity dear to my heart, the planting of shade trees throughout neighborhoods. “Spending time with trees reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, and improves your mood,” says tree hooo. Roadside trees reduce nearby indoor air pollution by more than 50%.
After two books about war and loss, I was ready for something light and found it in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
The screen actress Evelyn Hugo is everything we expect of a movie star – a blond sexpot, wealthy, divorced seven times, manipulative – reminiscent of the movie magazines of our teenage years. But she has a secret we do not expect. Evelyn, near the end of her life, contacts a magazine offering an exclusive on her life story – if one of their junior reporters does the interview.
What is Evelyn’s secret and why has she insisted on this particular reporter? Well, the novel has to have at least a part of a plot we don’t already know. This is a great book to pick up when you want to relax and reading seems like a lot of effort. It lulls you along and is interesting enough to encourage reading to the end to find the answer to the young reporter’s identity.
Great comments on books I’ve read. I hope it inspires more readers of diverse genres
After our discussion today on OBrien’s book, I enjoyed your choice of the word,”festering “. Perfect choice.