Play Book Tag discussion

1 star
This is one of those books you either get it or you don't, I did not get it.
I am not going to try and write a synopsis so this is taken from the book.
"On a Lake deep in Minnesota's north woods, John and Kathy Wade are trying to reassemble their lives. John, a rising political star, has just suffered a devastating electoral defeat. Kathy attempts to comfort her husband, but soon it becomes apparent that something is horribly wrong between them, that they have hidden too much from each other. " " Then one day Kathy vanishes. "
I will say the first page grabbed me but with each turn of a page, I became lost, confused, frustrated, and disinterested in the characters and storyline. The layout is very strange plus you can't complete a full picture of what the heck is going on because of all the jumping around in time.

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Regina Lindsey rated it 5 stars
Lt. Governor John Wade and his wife, Kathy, have retreated to a cabin in rural Minnesota after a crushing defeat in John's Senate run after his connection to Thuan Yen in the Vietnam War comes to light. Within days Kathy goes missing.

Told in disjointed sequences through chapters that give the Wade's story from intial meeting through the time of disappearance and those entitled "Hypothesis" and "Evidence" a disturbing, psychological profile of John comes to light.

While O'Brien is often criticized in his portrayal of the Vietnam experience, and often deservedly so, I personally commend his efforts on a couple of fronts. First, I appreciate the fact that he gives the men and women of this era a voice, even if it is not done perfectly. Secondly, I think he is a brilliant author. For instance, the disjointed manner he approaches this subject is tricky and doesn't work in most efforts. But, in this instance it is perfect. Even thought there are multiple thoughts thrown at the reader simultaneously, he adeptly pulls together the character to the anxious reader. Even in a work like this, when the Vietnam experience is peripheral, the reader is exposed to important historical events. It always surprises me how many people, who are well-versed in other aspects of history, are unfamiliar with Vietnam and/or Korea. Regardless of you view of O'Brien on the voice to this era, at least he explores the crucial benchmarks of the time. I found his use of the "Evidence" chapter in this work particularly effective.

Great mystery! Important American History! Great psychological study!

I agree with Regina - this is the most significant Vietnam war book I ever read. I have loved it from the day I read it. Tim O'Brien was our theme speaker for a county wide Great Reads experience. The organizing committee picked his book, The Things They Carried and the NEA funded it - sent hundreds of books. O'Brien himself picked the childrens book for the younger ones. It was about a daddy who came home from the war. The child in the book was lonesome for him and thought of him a lot. He finally came home. Joy! There were hundreds of discussions around the county about The Things They Carried since so many people have some experience about the Vietnam War - relatives, what they saw on TV, especially when the US was evacuating and hundreds of people were on the roof of the embassy trying to get on a helicopter. There were probably 50 book group discussions. I could not go to the luncheon for O'Brien (had to teach a class) but I told my head librarian that I thought Woods was the better book, in fact, the best book he wrote. Later, she told me that she got to sit beside him and she told him of my regret at not being there and that I loved Lake of the Woods. He told her that Lake was his favorite book he had ever written. Maybe it was true, maybe he says that to all people. He is a deep thinking person and this book is his best - it is about a shallow person who survived war in Vietnam and then ? perhaps fell apart? or his wife left him? He has written many more valuable books so good that you skipped this one if it was not applicable to you. But I urge you to consider other of his books about Vietnam. He was there. He was a grunt soldier. He saw people exploded. He saw his friends die. He gives you beautiful writing. I feel sad that this one never fit you but that is ok - we all have things that we pass by. Spend your time with books you love. Maybe come back to this in a couple of decades - it has been out for some time and still has meaning. Plus, he is a wordsmith. That is lovely. And when people are going crazy, they do not always move in a linear way. peace, janz

Janz, I hear and understand what you are saying.
I have read books and have heard many first-hand stories from people who are living through this so trust me I know how important it is to get this information out there.
I will give another one of his books a try. How a story is laid out is very important to a person(mindset) like me. It affects my comprehension.

I read this book a long time ago and although I remember liking it, I also remember it being a big, scattered, jumble of a story. Obviously, this was an intentional approach to storytelling but I honestly don't remember if I thought it enhanced the story so much as it challenged the reader (and maybe showed off, or at least tried to, the author's writing skills). I also prefer a more structured, less scattershot narrative but I hung in for this one but wondered all the way through what was truth, bad memory or conscious/unconscious denial. Defining himself almost singularly as "the" Vietnam author, O'Brien can be VERY heavy to read especially when fog of war, PTSD and rage are all mixed together. O'Brien published a memoir of sorts a few years ago Dad's Maybe Book which I really enjoyed and helped me understand him as a person a bit more which I think helps inform me better as a reader of his literature. It's a sweet, sad book on many levels but mostly on how much Vietnam and self-selecting himself the literary scribe of it seemed to not just define but almost consume him as a person until later in his life when he found a little slice of peace in his wife and children to balance out his otherwise never-ending war.

Charlie - great response. Thanks. peace, janz