Synopses & Reviews
As he did with
In the Lake of the Woods, National Book Award winner Tim O'Brien strikes at the emotional nerve center of our lives with this ambitious, compassionate, and terrifically compelling new novel that tells the remarkable story of the generation molded and defined by the 1960s.
At the thirtieth anniversary of Minnesota's Darton Hall College class of 1969, ten old friends reassemble for a July weekend of dancing, drinking, flirting, reminiscing, and regretting. The three decades since their graduation have seen marriage and divorce, children and careers, dreams deferred and disappointed many memories and many ghosts. Together their individual stories create a portrait of a generation launched into adulthood at the moment when their country, too, lost its innocence. Imbued with his signature themes of passion, memory, and yearning, July, July is Tim O'Brien's most fully realized work yet.
Review
"[I]nvolving and beautifully written....Once again O'Brien proves he's capable of being one of our brightest and best novelists." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Review
"It is admirable and courageous of Tim O'Brien to move beyond Vietnam...but he writes with far less confidence about the war between men and women..." Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book Review
Review
"July, July is a terrific story collection, but as a novel, while it is not exactly a failure, it disappoints. Maybe that's because the mirror O'Brien holds up to these folks in their fifties reveals only narcissists." John Mort, Booklist
Review
"O'Brien's latest is every bit as haunting as his most celebrated works." Library Journal (Starred Review)
Review
"A great novel." Esquire
Review
"O'Brien gives you exactly what you expect: the literary equivalent of a not-very-fast fastball down the middle....These days, even the television shows his characters surely watch collude in a culture of knowingness and irony far beyond the ken of July, July." David Gates, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"July, July is beautifully written, very moving, and very, very funny. A great book from one of America's greatest writers." Roddy Doyle, author of The Commitments and A Star Called Henry
Review
"Comedy and pathos define the reunion days, while the histories often devastate. Because they are such dramatic moments...some of them feel contrived, almost hyperbolic. Still, this is a poignant and powerful page-turner, and a testament to a generation." Publishers Weekly
Review
"A deeply satisfying story....O'Brien is intelligent and daring, but he is also eminently accessible; he writes in clear, fluid sentences about people we recognize." Oprah Magazine
Review
"[A]t the end of the day, it's not easy to sympathize with (or care much about) these [characters]. Virtually indistinguishable from one another...they bear witness to the narcissism of the baby boomer generation..." Stephanie Foote, Book Magazine
Review
"O'Brien's writing is as compulsively readable, as tough and succinct, as savagely funny as ever." The Seattle Times/Post Intelligencer
Synopsis
As he did with
In the Lake of the Woods, National Book Award winner Tim O'Brien strikes at the emotional nerve center of our lives with this ambitious, compassionate, and terrifically compelling new novel that tells the remarkable story of the generation molded and defined by the 1960s. At the thirtieth anniversary of Minnesota's Darton Hall College class of 1969, ten old friends reassemble for a July weekend of dancing, drinking, flirting, reminiscing, and regretting. The three decades since their graduation have seen marriage and divorce, children and careers, dreams deferred and disappointed-many memories and many ghosts. Together their individual stories create a portrait of a generation launched into adulthood at the moment when their country, too, lost its innocence. Imbued with his signature themes of passion, memory, and yearning,
July, July is Tim O'Brien's most fully realized work.
Synopsis
As he did with
In the Lake of the Woods, National Book Award winner Tim O'Brien strikes at the emotional nerve center of our lives with this ambitious, compassionate, and terrifically compelling new novel that tells the remarkable story of the generation molded and defined by the 1960s. At the thirtieth anniversary of Minnesota's Darton Hall College class of 1969, ten old friends reassemble for a July weekend of dancing, drinking, flirting, reminiscing, and regretting. The three decades since their graduation have seen marriage and divorce, children and careers, dreams deferred and disappointed-many memories and many ghosts. Together their individual stories create a portrait of a generation launched into adulthood at the moment when their country, too, lost its innocence. Imbued with his signature themes of passion, memory, and yearning,
July, July is Tim O'Brien's most fully realized work.
About the Author
Minnesota native Tim O'Brien graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul in 1968. He served as a foot soldier in Vietnam from February 1969 to March 1970. Following his military service, he went to graduate school in Government at Harvard University, then later worked as a national affairs reporter for The Washington Post. O'Brien is the author of the novel Going After Cacciato, winner of the 1979 National Book Award for fiction, and of The Things They Carried, winner of the 1990 Chicago Tribune Heartland Award in fiction. Its title story, first published in Esquire, received the 1987 National Magazine Award in fiction. His other books are If I Die in a Combat Zone, Northern Lights, and The Nuclear Age. His work has appeared in numerous magazines, including Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, Playboy, McCall's, Granta, Harper's, Redbook, The New Republic, Ploughshares, Gentleman's Quarterly, and Saturday Review. His short stories have been anthologized in The O. Henry Prize Stories (1976, 1978, 1982), Great Esquire Fiction, Best American Short Stories (1978, 1987), The Pushcart Prize (Vols. II and X), and in many textbooks and collections. He has received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Massachusetts Arts and Humanities Foundation. In the Lake of the Woods was selected by the editors of The New York Times Book Review as one of the best books of 1994.