Author Tim O'Brien shares insights with students during Big Read

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:44:07 GMT

By Marcillene Dover

Ashleigh Patterson
Junior Ashton Pacholski has his book signed by author Tim O’Brien.

By Marcillene Dover A busload of students attended a lecture by Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried, chosen for Wichita’s Big Read. Students had a lot to say about O’Brien’s presentation. O’Brien read "Ambush," a chapter from his book. The story he tells is based on some of his own experiences in the Vietnam War. "It was very eye -opening about the war in Vietnam. The part that hit me most is when he started choking up when he was talking about his friend from the war," Junior Ashton Pacholski said. During the questions session, students were allowed to ask O’Brien questions of all sorts. One student asked if he still knew anyone he fought with from the war. "Oh yeah, I remember everybody," O’Brien said. He started listing some names; it was clear that the war was a bonding experience for soldiers. O’Brien described an experience he had, the one to which Pacholski had referred. He was at a book signing, and someone was waiting to talk in private with O’Brien. Once he had the chance, he told O’Brien that he thought he had known his father from the war. O’Brien said that at that moment, he knew who he was talking about. "He had his father’s eyes," O’Brien said. The young man’s father was known to O’Brien as "Mad Mark." He was one of the craziest soldiers, sometimes going out of his way to inflict violence upon innocent villagers during land strikes. The young man asked what his father had been like, since he never got to know him; his father committed suicide when he was six months old. "He asked me, ‘Why didn’t my father love me enough to stay alive?’" O’Brien said. O’Brien choked up when he got to this part of the story. It was emotional, and he had the audience’s full attention. "I thought it was really cool hearing his stories. I teared up," Junior Morgan Hough said. One of the students in the audience asked him how he benefited from speaking to students about his book. "There are two reasons why I do what I’m doing. One, to excite you. Reading is not boring. It can be hypnotizing. Stories can put you in a place you’ve never been; you can feel things relative to your own life. It’s fun in a good sense. Second, I want to inform you of some stories that are beyond the stereotypes of war. War can be love," O’Brien said. "You may realize some things that you didn’t really value until war," he said. "You get to see what kind of petty, daily, nasty things that go on in a war. Things that aren’t written in the newspaper, things you won’t see in a John Wayne movie," O’Brien said. He said that to him, coming and speaking to students was a duty, an obligation.