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Tim O'Brien

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Tim O'Brien


Born
in Austin, Minnesota, The United States
October 01, 1946

Genre
Literature & Fiction, Nonfiction


Tim O'Brien is an American novelist who served as a soldier in the Vietnam War. Much of his writing is about wartime Vietnam, and his work later in life often explores the postwar lives of its veterans.
O'Brien is perhaps best known for his book The Things They Carried (1990), a collection of linked semi-autobiographical stories inspired by his wartime experiences. In 2010, The New York Times described it as "a classic of contemporary war fiction." O'Brien wrote the war novel, Going After Cacciato (1978), which was awarded the National Book Award.
O'Brien taught creative writing, holding the endowed chair at the MFA program of Texas State University–San Marcos every other academic year from 2003 to 2012. ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 4.08 · 412,712 ratings · 27,185 reviews · 137 distinct works • Similar authors
The Things They Carried
4.14 avg rating — 341,895 ratings — published 1990 — 6 editions
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In the Lake of the Woods
3.76 avg rating — 24,143 ratings — published 1994 — 64 editions
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Going After Cacciato
3.91 avg rating — 14,562 ratings — published 1978 — 2 editions
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If I Die in a Combat Zone, ...
3.96 avg rating — 11,809 ratings — published 1973 — 70 editions
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America Fantastica
3.44 avg rating — 4,837 ratings — published 2023 — 12 editions
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July, July
3.49 avg rating — 4,050 ratings — published 2002 — 36 editions
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Tomcat in Love
3.44 avg rating — 3,471 ratings — published 1998 — 38 editions
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Northern Lights
3.32 avg rating — 1,301 ratings — published 1975 — 22 editions
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The Nuclear Age
3.48 avg rating — 1,186 ratings — published 1985 — 31 editions
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Dad's Maybe Book
3.93 avg rating — 854 ratings — published 2019 — 14 editions
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Quotes by Tim O'Brien  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“That's what fiction is for. It's for getting at the truth when the truth isn't sufficient for the truth.”
― Tim O'Brien
tags: fiction, on-fiction, stories, truth, writing
2418 likes
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“They carried the sky. The whole atmosphere, they carried it, the humidity, the monsoons, the stink of fungus and decay, all of it, they carried gravity.”
― Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried
980 likes
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“A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth.”
― Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried
tags: lies, truth, war
777 likes
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