Diane Thomas's Blog
March 24, 2015
Tim O'Brien's big risk:IN THE LAKE OF THE WOODS
Just finished Tim O'Brien's 1994 novel IN THE LAKE OF THE WOODS. As in just put it down. I'm not crashingly well read -- I've got eye problems-- but I think ITLOTW may be the most courageous book I've ever read.
Forget happy endings, this book about a war-haunted Vietnam vet doesn't even (ever?) END. He never solves the terrifying mystery he creates that keeps us turning pages well into the night. He makes liberal use of footnotes (in a NOVEL?). He even writes some long ones as himself. And the book's structure? Even today it might be thought somewhat radical; makes you question what, after all, a book really IS.
The whole thing loops back on itself again and again, like the two snakes he keeps referring to who swallow each others' tails until they form a hoop--then do they keep swallowing until they disappear? ANd what's a novel anyway? And do we need one? Or do we need something else? Something we have yet to imagine?
The book got recommended to me when I read from IN WILDERNESS at the Georgia Center for the Book nearly three weeks ago. Q&A, grayhaired guy in front row raises his hand, reads an iPhone list of writers who fought in wars and wrote about them. Some names would surprise you. Asked me what I did to create Danny, the Vietnam vet in IN WILDERNESS. I told him all the books I'd read, how I interviewed two widows of vets who'd killed themselves (one who herself developed PTSD while her husband was alive), how I chose not to interview the vets themselves for fear of what memories I might stir up. He asked if I'd read IN THE LAKE OF THE WOODS. I said no, he said that's too bad; it's the best book describing war and the effects of war I've ever seen.
I read it. He's probably right.
My favorite phrase from O'Brien's book: "his anthology of dreams."
Later, he stood in line and bought a book.
Forget happy endings, this book about a war-haunted Vietnam vet doesn't even (ever?) END. He never solves the terrifying mystery he creates that keeps us turning pages well into the night. He makes liberal use of footnotes (in a NOVEL?). He even writes some long ones as himself. And the book's structure? Even today it might be thought somewhat radical; makes you question what, after all, a book really IS.
The whole thing loops back on itself again and again, like the two snakes he keeps referring to who swallow each others' tails until they form a hoop--then do they keep swallowing until they disappear? ANd what's a novel anyway? And do we need one? Or do we need something else? Something we have yet to imagine?
The book got recommended to me when I read from IN WILDERNESS at the Georgia Center for the Book nearly three weeks ago. Q&A, grayhaired guy in front row raises his hand, reads an iPhone list of writers who fought in wars and wrote about them. Some names would surprise you. Asked me what I did to create Danny, the Vietnam vet in IN WILDERNESS. I told him all the books I'd read, how I interviewed two widows of vets who'd killed themselves (one who herself developed PTSD while her husband was alive), how I chose not to interview the vets themselves for fear of what memories I might stir up. He asked if I'd read IN THE LAKE OF THE WOODS. I said no, he said that's too bad; it's the best book describing war and the effects of war I've ever seen.
I read it. He's probably right.
My favorite phrase from O'Brien's book: "his anthology of dreams."
Later, he stood in line and bought a book.
February 27, 2015
WOOHOO!! MY NOVEL COMES OUT IN THREE DAYS!!
Hi everybody--
What a way to start a blog!! My new novel, IN WILDERNESS, thirty-five years in the making (more or less) GOES ON SALE ON MONDAY!!
That's THIS MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2015.
I started writing this book back in 1980, after I reacted to an antibiotic and was so sick I could hardly hold my head up. I thought I was so surely dying that my husband, Bill, asked me what single thing I wanted to do most before the dreaded event. I said I'd like to write a novel and he said get busy. And the rest--I haven't got a lot of time today, my dinner's almost ready--as they say, is history.
It's a good book. I'm obscenely proud of it. Really cool writers like Lee Child, Christina Baker Kline, Ron Rash, William Landay, Joshilyn Jackson, Carla Buckley, Vicki Lane, Frank Huyler,Joseph Monninger and Terry Kay said nice things about it. VERY nice things. So did LIBRARY JOURNAL and BOOKLIST.
I'll get to all that in the coming days. Right now I've got to learn my way around Goodreads. Also Library Thing (can I mention that here?) I'm on a mountain north of Atlanta right now, roosting here until I speak Monday evening at the Decatur Public Library in Decatur, which use to be its own town but is now part of Atlanta more or less. I used to live there.
Anyway, I'll sort all this out in the next few days. This first post is just to say HELLO!!! I'M HERE!!! MY BOOK COMES OUT ON TUESDAY!!! YOU'LL BE HEARING MORE FROM BOTH OF US.
'Til next time,
Diane
What a way to start a blog!! My new novel, IN WILDERNESS, thirty-five years in the making (more or less) GOES ON SALE ON MONDAY!!
That's THIS MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2015.
I started writing this book back in 1980, after I reacted to an antibiotic and was so sick I could hardly hold my head up. I thought I was so surely dying that my husband, Bill, asked me what single thing I wanted to do most before the dreaded event. I said I'd like to write a novel and he said get busy. And the rest--I haven't got a lot of time today, my dinner's almost ready--as they say, is history.
It's a good book. I'm obscenely proud of it. Really cool writers like Lee Child, Christina Baker Kline, Ron Rash, William Landay, Joshilyn Jackson, Carla Buckley, Vicki Lane, Frank Huyler,Joseph Monninger and Terry Kay said nice things about it. VERY nice things. So did LIBRARY JOURNAL and BOOKLIST.
I'll get to all that in the coming days. Right now I've got to learn my way around Goodreads. Also Library Thing (can I mention that here?) I'm on a mountain north of Atlanta right now, roosting here until I speak Monday evening at the Decatur Public Library in Decatur, which use to be its own town but is now part of Atlanta more or less. I used to live there.
Anyway, I'll sort all this out in the next few days. This first post is just to say HELLO!!! I'M HERE!!! MY BOOK COMES OUT ON TUESDAY!!! YOU'LL BE HEARING MORE FROM BOTH OF US.
'Til next time,
Diane
