Photo: Larry D. Moore / CC BY 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Tim O'Brien is one of those writers who makes you feel like war literature can actually tell the truth — not the clean, heroic kind, but the messy, morally ambiguous kind that sticks with you for years. He served in Vietnam, drafted right out of Macalester College, and instead of burying that experience he turned it into some of the most honest fiction about American warfare ever written. The Things They Carried is the obvious crown jewel, a book that blurs memoir and invention so deliberately that the blurring itself becomes the point — because that's what trauma does to memory. Going After Cacciato won the National Book Award in 1979 and it deserved every bit of it. What I respect most is that O'Brien never lets war off the hook, and he never lets his characters — or readers — off the hook either.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Tim O'Brien
- Name (Japanese)
- ティム・オブライエン
- Reading
- てぃむ・おぶらいえん
- Born
- October 1, 1946 (age 79)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Libra / Dog
- Origin
- Austin, Minnesota, United States
- Occupation
- writer / teacher / novelist
2. Background
- High school
- Worthington Senior High School
- University
- Macalester College
Awards & achievements
- 1981 Guggenheim Fellowship
- 1979 National Book Award
- 1995 Society of American Historians Prize for Historical Fiction
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | Going After Cacciato | — | |
| Notable work | The Things They Carried | — |
6. Links
Frequently asked questions
When was Tim O'Brien born?
Born October 1, 1946 (age 79).
Where is Tim O'Brien from?
Tim O'Brien is from Austin, Minnesota, United States.
What does Tim O'Brien do?
Tim O'Brien works as writer, teacher, novelist.
What is Tim O'Brien known for?
Notable works include Going After Cacciato, The Things They Carried.
Writer — see all → · Teacher — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.