O\u2019Brien was actually never an English major himself; he instead got his degree in Political Science, which is reflected in the various ways his body of work explores American war and politics. He did, however, take five English classes at Mac and said that they were some of his favorite courses he ever took. While in college, he went on a summer program in Prague during which he wrote a novel. He jokingly cited his \u201cfirst novel,\u201d however, as being <\/span>Timmy of the Little League<\/span><\/i>: a book he wrote at the age of eight years old. This book was really just the text of another children\u2019s book <\/span>Larry of the Little League<\/span><\/i>, but with his own name swapped out for Larry\u2019s. While perhaps not the most original of works, it began O\u2019Brien\u2019s lifelong love of creative literature.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n When asked about how he writes, O\u2019Brien described his writing as always being \u201ca mix of memory and imagination.\u201d He explained that life never feels chronological as he experiences it, so he typically doesn\u2019t write his books in chronological order either. It\u2019s always a priority for him to care about what he\u2019s writing, as he feels that if he doesn\u2019t care, a reader wouldn\u2019t either. Similarly, he also doesn\u2019t feel a reader would feel surprised by his writing if he wasn\u2019t, and so he never outlines his works ahead of time, instead surprising himself as he goes along. O\u2019Brien is best known for his work <\/span>The Things They Carried<\/span><\/i>, inspired by his time as a soldier in the Vietnam War. This work is a clear example of O\u2019Brien\u2019s mix of \u201cmemory and imagination,\u201d as it is a fictional work that draws upon real people and experiences from his life.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n O\u2019Brien is also currently in the process of having a biography written about him. A student asked if this was something that he struggled with (having someone else tell his story). He responded that it\u2019s not a challenge because he\u2019s \u201clargely just ignoring it,\u201d which I imagine does help relieve anxiety over having your story told. O\u2019Brien also shared with us that he married an actor for the stage, and this caused him to become more interested in theatrical works, specifically the works of Shakespeare. One of his favorite roles that his wife played was Feste in <\/span>Twelfth Night<\/span><\/i>, and he went on to recite one of Feste\u2019s songs. This is a role that I\u2019ve personally performed and greatly enjoyed, and so I enjoyed hearing his appreciation for it.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n O\u2019Brien let us know that his book tour had been going on for weeks at this point, and that Mac was the last stop on the tour. He told us that he was relieved to end the tour here because the Macalester campus \u201cfelt comfortable\u2013like home.\u201d<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Patrick Coy-Bjork \u201824 On November 15th, Macalester alumnus and well-known author Tim O\u2019Brien returned to Mac\u2019s campus as a part of the book tour for his latest novel, America Fantastica. During this visit, the English department hosted a coffee and lunch in which current English seniors could converse with O\u2019Brien regarding his experience studying […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":913,"featured_media":0,"parent":6037,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6067","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/913"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6067"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8515,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6067\/revisions\/8515"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"O'Brien](\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/603\/2023\/12\/Tim-OBrien-in-Conversation-with-Seniors.jpg\")