Rating: 
Summary: Eroded Idealism and Hope Reborn
Review: "We tried to change the world, but the world changed us..."
The 30th reunion of the class of 1969 frames this thoughtful and moving book. It's told in alternating (then and now) chapters and follows a handful of graudates through Vietnam(an extremely harrowing segment), cancer, adultery, and other life changing experiences. O'Brien explores the choices his characters have made and the reverberative consequences of those decisions. At it's core 'July July' explores the loss of youthful innocence and the accompanying idealism and shows what these characters have adopted to replace that absence or void in their lives. O'Brien also shows how -- given the right reminder (like a reunion) this hope and love of being alive can sometimes be reborn. I found this novel a gripping and very moving reading experience.
Rating: 
Summary: A major disappointment
Review: A personal note on why I found the book so disappointing... Because I found The Things They Carried and In The Lake of The Woods to be devastatingly good, I looked forward to OBrien's latest submission with great anticipation. While the premise of the book would seem to play into the author's power alley, and there are indeed characteristic fragments of telling insight, for the most part I think July July is trite, disconnected, and without interest. The characters are truly forgettable. Taken as a whole, this odd cast would indict their generation as a group of pathetic losers, and this is a hard pill to swallow. In The Things They Carried, Obrien's "scene to scene" psycho-ramblings are held together to great effect by the well understood context of Vietnam. In In The Lake of the Woods, Obrien skillfully weaves diverse story lines around a tightly knit plot. July July suffers mightily from the lack of common context and integrating plot. Instead, the book jumps back and forth from one strange person or story to another, and the result for me was simply confusion. I wasn't sure who was who, but once I figured out what everybody was up to, I didn't care. I lost interest quickly. Don't go there.
Rating:
Summary: Never mind the premise, feel the quality
Review: An apt W.B. Yeats couplet introduces Tim O'Brien's new novel: "We had fed the heart on fantasies, The heart's grown brutal from the fare." When he issued his best work, In the Lake of the Woods (1994) O'Brien gave assurances that he had got the Vietnam War out of his system. On the strength of July, July (a) that is not quite true and (b) it doesn't matter all that much. The author is cruel, serious and funny; in great form here. This is only his second novel in eight years, a point in favour of writers holding their fire until they have more to say. It is a stiflingly hot Minnesota weekend in 2000. A college group stages a delayed 30-year reunion, recalling the vicious years when even "the most ordinary human snapshots would be fixed in memory by the acidic wash of war". A corny premise, you might think. Do we really need one more American book or film reuniting the golden children of the '60s carved up by drugs, phoney idealism and the Vietnam War? But the cast of characters that flows off the pen is outstanding. A bruised, brittle group of flower-power veterans maintains a deeply human and alarmingly persistent thirst for love and vengeance. David, the war amputee, hears voices so nagging and accurate that ultimately they can only be his own. The beauty of the class, another one troubled by dead people whispering in her ear, manages two husbands concurrently, until her "unblemished sovereignty" over men is brought undone by a third affair. Two other women have had too little sex for years, but surprisingly different romantic fates befall them. The Governor of Minnesota, mysteriously unnamed, parades his trophy fiancee. The years have levelled "the bumpy playing field" between the aspiring male scientist and the fading female librarian. Meanwhile, Marv, the rich mop-factory man, muses over his short-lived episode of thinness and sexual desirability. When his delectable girlfriend finds out that he is not a famous writer after all, Marv retorts nonchalantly, "No, but I'm skinny." David was meant to marry Marla, and unfortunately did. Dorothy never married Billy, who is still paying out on her for not following him to Canada when he fled the draft. "It's such a Karen sort of thing, getting killed like that," frowns ferocious Amy on the first page, damning a perennially awkward classmate murdered the year before the reunion - the same Amy who continually reminds her old friend Jan that she is still a frump, and cheerfully advises a young fellow to "go kill himself" when he objects to her old-fashioned jukebox choices. Notable qualities of writing that lifted In the Lake of the Woods do the same for July, July. It is almost obligatory for the American literary novel to flash forwards and backwards throughout. O'Brien's nice variation is that longer narratives of the past alternate with rapid fire segments from the present, as the diminishing celebration party lurches from reunion dance to buffet breakfast to memorial service to banquet dinner. If the '60s have been a blitzkrieg for the group, the new millennium is still a battle. Subtly, O'Brien stages the reunion proceedings almost as a form of guerrilla warfare, streaked with sudden firefights and dangerously shifting alliances. The past dominates, new wounds are sustained in the skirmishes, but a bleak promise is also sustained. The author retains a keen sense of what to close off and what to leave open in his fiction. The novel concludes with a hint of fresh tragedy. Defying the chequered history of her generation, Jan is left to take the last word. "We're golden," she brightly tells Amy. This reads less as cynicism on O'Brien's part, more as an admission that only the gravest ironies will keep us sane in the face of the harshness to which Yeats alludes. (From the Canberra Times, 9 November 1992)
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, but nothing special
Review: Compared to past Tim O'Brien books, this one certainly falls short of excellent. I recommend almost any of his others over this one. But, it is an interesting twist on his typical material. There is still the obligatory O'Brien-Vietnam subplot, but he also invents many new characters all being faced with their childhood when they attend their college reunion 30-some-odd years later. They reminisce over lost loves and missed opportunities but with quite a sense of humor. It's very interesting, and I imagine moreso for anyone who is also approaching late-middle age.
Rating:
Summary: Moving, engrossing, despite its flaws.
Review: Despite its limitations, I found this to be a moving, engrossing novel. The class of 1969 is holding a 30th reunion, and while a group of friends commiserate, work on unresolved relationships, and even start new ones, they talk about their past. College occurred during the Viet Nam war, but this is important primarily because one of the characters is seriously wounded, and another character flees to Canada. This is not a political novel. Instead, O'Brien looks with sympathy and some pessimism on the search for love, a good marriage, and a meaningful life. O'Brien makes liberal use of plot devices, and he does not really break new ground, but there is a quirkiness about some of the characters and relationships I found very appealing, and there is an abundance of honest emotion. The imaginary, but mythic character who represents one of the wounded veteran's inner voices is powerful, funny, sardonic. I found weakest the 2 women friends who are constantly drinking and bemoaning their lack of men; their histories are also kind of bizarre.
Rating:
Summary: Baby Boomers! A Primer for Your Next College Reunion
Review: For those who experienced the 1960s as high schoolers or collegians, this book is sure to strike a chord. O'Brien's novel will give pause to reflect on a life lived and on the lives of those you shared the journey with in the '60s.
The setting for "July, July" is a stressful two days in July which mixes fun with weariness, and melancholy at the Darton Hall College 30 year (Class of '69) class reunion. Real life characters provide tragic and funny moments which provide vicarious fulfillment for the reader.
David - the disabled Vietnam Vet.
Marla - who became David's wife but could not deal with his post-Vietnam emotional problems.
Billy - the conscientious objector who fled to Canada and never returned.
Dorothy - the girl who did not follow Billy to Canada and now has cancer.
Karen - a much discussed no-show who had been murdered.
Jan - who befriended a dwarf after being married to his brother.
Paulette - a minister with a "past."
Ellie - who had a fateful fling with Harmon.
O'Brien surfaces issues that we, the leading edge of the boomers, are coming to grips with:
* Did we make the right choices in work? Partners? Lifestyles?
* Are we looking back now to see that what we chose, at that time, is what we are today? Did we find what we were seeking?
* Did we realize that everything else would be sucked away?
* Now that the turbulent world of youth and early adulthood has receded, are we vested in the fantasy that there will still be splendid things to come?
* Do we sort of wonder who won't make it to the next reunion?
The interplay of these characters, their getting re-reacquainted, and the sharing of their stories will break down walls for even the most stoic. Most readers who have `come of age' will be challenged by this book as it will be a catalyst in addressing a life lived. With its thought provoking challenge, "July, July" is a very good and worthwhile read.
Rating: 
Summary: Memories and What Ifs
Review: Having read several of Tim O'Brien's books, I was looking forward to reading 'July, July'; and while not his best book, it contains the same elements that make 'The Things They Carried' and 'In the Lake of the Woods' the masterpieces they are. O'Brien once again brings us to the topic that perpetuates his other novels - the role that memory plays in shaping our entire lives.
In 'July, July' he describes a college class of 1969 - what they were like then, what they're like now; what went wrong, what went right. As a generation coming of age during the Vietnam War, O'Brien's narrative is peppered with the realities that war brought into the lives of these young, carefree college kids. We are introduced to a wide cast of characters, gradually learning more about them, as O'Brien fluctuates between the present and flashbacks to the past. Even though the novel lacks a central, sequential plot, the stories of these characters flow right along, as they analyze their lives and try to discover who they are.
O'Brien imaginatively uses the backdrop of a class reunion to examine old wounds and fresh hopes. These characters are all hurting in some way - either due to lost loves, the death of fellow classmates, divorce, or falling into a mediocrity they never expected for themselves. The entire cast of characters are vividly drawn, if not always believable, and one cannot help but root for them and their reunion with memories and old friends. For a generation that experienced such upheaveal and loss, O'Brien strains to make sense of that in 'July, July'. And this time, his characters can get past the bad memories to begin their lives anew.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, Wonderful
Review: How greatful we all should be for Tim O'Brien. His spare, elegant, prose has a way of elevating us ... we humans. He has taken us on journeys from the clear lakes of Minnesota to the decaying streams of Vietnam, and on to the ivy covered walls of academia...and through all these stories he has done what all great novelists do, opened our hearts and souls to humanity. He has made us look at ourselves. That mirror he holds up to us is harsh but truthful. We must look, painful as it is, to see the truth and uncover the beauty. And so now he takes us to the thirtieth reunion of the class of 1969. That amazing year that took us to the moon and then flung us into the mud of Vietnam. "Sex, drugs and rock and roll" was the mantra of that year, and in July, July we see the aftermath of those words. The individuals in this novel are the patsys, the fall guys, the dupes of that era. "Never trust anyone over thirty," "Hell no, we won't go," and my all time favorite, "Free Love." Except that we found out that nothing is free and you do definitely get what you pay for. For the class of '69, it is cancer, nightmares, alcohol, and very little peace. And always there is Johnny Ever, the voice of the middle ages crazies. The class of '69 scorned tradition, scoffed at spirituality, put themselves into the hands of astrologers, but forty years on, they're looking for God in all the wrong places. I was touched by Spook and Johnny and Marv and Jan, all of the people who fill this book. I cringed at Karen Burns and her hellish trip to Tuscon and cried at Dorothy's topless adventure. To read Tim O'Brien is to uncover the essence, the pith, the soul of man. We'll all be better for it.
Rating:
Summary: A long drunken night
Review: I first discovered O'Brien because of The Things They Carried, then I loved In the Lake of the Woods. The shifts in characters and times in this novel were confusing to me, but many of their stories were familiar. As the reunion goes on, people get drunk or high, promises and confessions are made, only to be forgotten. I couldn't credit the character of Spook Spinelli, such fatal allure at 53! I kept waiting for her to kill herself. Jan's episode as a porn star seemed quite incredible, as well as her masochistic marriage.
There are several other very amorphous characters, such as the policeman who tells Ellie that he will be her conscience, who won't let her stop feeling guilty about her lover's drowning and her opting out of the scene; and Dorothy's neighbor, Fred, who seems to know everything about her. This is definitely a novel which I had to read twice, and one which is worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: July July
Review: I had heard of O'Brien while working at a bookstore. After reading this book, I can say with certainty that I will never pick up another one of his books. This book starts off with a group of people coming back for their 30th reunion. The ones that aren't lushes spend their time with verious other vices (acid, men, etc...). All I can say is that if this is middle age, I guess I've already lived the best years of my life. Not a single character has a satisfying life. Even the ones who have made financially, have ... personal lives. On a bright note, O'Brien's writing is impressive, it's just his story line that leaves ALOT to be desired. Overall, a depressing look at middle age filled with regrets over what wasn't done and nursed gruges over decades.
|
