The universal struggle of the soldier

Truth or fiction?

“The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien is clearly identified as fiction, but 12 women and Stanwood’s teen librarian Rob Branigin considered the possibility that it might be closer to truth than they’d like to admit.

Stanwood Library’s book group that meets monthly in the library at Merrill Gardens participated in Sno-Isle Libraries’ Big Read last week, discussing the book about a fictional platoon of American soldiers in Vietnam.

While a couple participants were annoyed because the story did not follow a linear path, the book inspired a passionate discussion about war and its consequences. Under the leadership of Pam Cronkrite from the Stanwood Library, the group came to the conclusion that nobody, not the winners or the losers, can walk away from a war unaffected.

The book group debated whether the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan might be less bad than the Vietnam War due to lessons learned, improved technology and communications, and the clearly defined enemy. The group discussed whether the Veterans Administration had learned lessons, whether current treatments are more effective, and the current state of Vietnam, but that’s not what the book is about.

The book’s 22 tales relating the exploits and personalities of the platoon brought back memories for the women of how their fathers, husbands, brothers returned from different wars. The group discussed how the earlier generation of World War II was taught to keep a “stiff upper lip,” but even they returned damaged. For Wendy, the book “helped me understand why my father had PTSD after his time in the jungles of Burma in WWII.”

Cronkrite, too, acknowledged her father was messed up from WWII.

“War makes people mean,” JoAnn Hallen pointed out.

“I didn’t like the book at first,” said Dorothy Pierce, “But it illustrates the starkness of war. People don’t realize how much war changes a person.” They (the soldiers) can’t explain to their families what they have seen, she noted.

Indeed, O’Brien’s stories are so bizarre, that even the characters in the stories debated what was truth and what was fiction. Because it’s hard to comprehend, the stories feel surreal. How else to describe a person blown up by a bomb, but a burst of stars? It’s grotesque, with plenty of blood and gore, but this book is also funny, and poetic, too.

Beginning with a chapter long list of all the things the soldiers pack along while tromping through the jungle — from real physical needs such as food and firearms, to their spiritual needs like love letters and photographs of girlfriends and good luck charms of many kinds. One soldier wore his girlfriend’s nylon stockings around his neck, and the platoon all believed it saved his life several times.

The author flashes back and forth, from war scenes, before the war, and then 20 years later, to his “normal” life with a 9-year-old daughter. How else to illustrate how it affected him?

In the end, as Judy Reece said, a person’s interpretation of the book is based on all the things we all carry, our experiences, our lives, our views of the world. But for the veterans of any war, the nightmares continue.

As part of Sno-Isle Libraries’ Big Read, the American Place Theatre’s Literature to Life program presented a live stage adaptation of the book last weekend, at three locations including the Floyd Norgaard Center, expanding the community-wide discussion to another audience.

This week, the Camano Island Library Pilot Project will host another discussion, Thursday, 6:30 p.m., May 20.

Next month, the Stanwood Library book group will discuss “Kindred” by Octavia E. Butler.