Vietnam with Sensitivity and Insight. And the Late Great Eddie Van Halen.
More good books from Off the Beaten Path
THE THINGS THEY CARRIED, by Tim O’Brien
Interesting structure. THE THINGS THEY CARRIED is a fast moving series of autobiographical short stories that ultimately take on the form of a novel. By way of the simplest explanation possible, it’s a book about what it was like being a foot soldier during the Vietnam War, written by a very observant infantryman. On a deeper level, it’s one man’s often poetic attempt to come to grips with his tragic experiences, how war changed him, his emotional scars, how he’s both able and unable to heal; and how he’s moved on.
Tim O’Brien is a National Book Award winner for his novel, GOING AFTER CACCIATO, which I wrote about HERE. That’s a story about a soldier who melts down and chucks it all together, deserts, and starts walking to Paris! A few of his mates are tasked with tracking him, capturing him, and bringing him back. It’s a great book, therefore I tried this one.
First, a note on author O’Brien’s structure. I’m gonna label this “A book of interconnected short stories.” As a writer of short stories myself, it’s interesting, and let’s consider such work as a twig on the branch of the Tree of Modernism. My personal view is that the Literary Modernism movement tried to redefine a narrative by giving writing a style where there was no style. The form has no form. Or at least, no traditional narrative form. Hence, writers like James Joyce, Faulkner, Henry Miller, and the T.S. Eliot’s of this world each attempted new forms, different forms, wilder forms, and form-less-ness. All to push the literary envelope. Some of them even combined forms in a single piece. (The high watermark of such Modernism is often considered to be Joyce’s Ulysses, where each chapter takes on a different form, and/or has a different narrator.)
The stories in THE THINGS THEY CARRIED can stand alone; but as you read along, they link together, speak to each other, build on themselves.
As you might imagine, a soldier’s internal emotional conflict lies at the center of the book. An early story chronicles O’Brien’s youth, in the 60s, when the Draft and its lottery system loom large over every teenager in America. O’Brien, a New Englander, attempts to be a draft dodger and flee to Canada. There’s both a reluctance to enlist, and a reluctance to run away. He ends up staying on a farm near the Canadian border while he sorts out his thoughts, which are filtered through the stability and wisdom of the old farmer. Ultimately, of course, we know O’Brien returns home and enlists, hence his career as a soldier and somebody who writes about being a soldier.
THE THINGS THEY CARRIED is a book about the day-to-day, often minute-to-minute world of the grunts and foot soldiers inserted into the jungle during the Vietnamese war. These are the men placed directly in the path of harm’s way. You read about the jungle and the fear and the bugs and the bullets and all the ammo and equipment a soldier must haul around. You quickly realize that The Things a soldier must Carry are not merely the physical gear on one’s back, but the emotional weight in the mind. And O’Brien is very clear: this emotional burden on your mind lingers the rest of your life. There’s a story about his own daughter, many years after the war, and how he relates to her; tales about some of his mates who survived and came home, their memories and nightmares; the many people unable to move on, when they desperately try to move on. O’Brien is not the typical field reporter writing another book about war. O’Brien is a highly talented writer. Of course he puts you right into the jungle with his descriptions, but he adds an emotional depth and the ability to articulate his emotions so we can truly understand. He chooses words carefully, thoughtfully. With precision. Descriptions are never cliched, and in fact are often downright poetic -- quite unusual when writing about a war setting.
O’Brien wrote THE THINGS THEY CARRIED in 1990, about 25 years after he fought. You read this book the gain a perspective about his experiences, filtered after he’s understood the true emotional toll that’s stuck with him. You read this for the benefit of a talented writer giving you a glimpse of how a soldier remains on edge, day and night. You read about the mental exhaustion and the physical toll, and then how different people deal with the deaths of their teammates. You read it to get a new perspective on lost innocence, and finally, you read THE THINGS THEY CARRIED just to reach the final chapter, which to me is one of the most powerful endings in recent literature. This is relatively short book. It’s gripping yet a fairly rapid read, beautifully conveyed. Here’s the Amazon link.
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BROTHERS, by Alex Van Halen. Alex and Eddie Van Halen were the founders of their namesake band, Van Halen. Eddie Van Halen is often considered the greatest guitar player who ever lived, and certainly one of the most creative. He sadly passed away in 2020. As a lifelong chain smoker, he fought cancer of the tongue, throat, and lungs for many years. This book is his brother Alex’s moving tribute of their lifetime together on both a personal and professional level.
The Van Halen family moved from the Netherlands to the States when the two Van Halen boys were young. They settled in Altadena, California (yes, where the horrific fires occurred) and then next door in Pasadena. NOTE: I grew up in Pasadena – I’m just a few years younger than the Van Halens. My friends knew their friends, one of those deals. Therefore, my wife gifted me this book because I ”knew” these guys in Pasadena many years ago. Many Pasadena people have great stories about Van Halen. In their early years, known then as Mammoth, just out of high school, they played dive bars and backyards, and quickly earned a reputation as great musicians with athletic showmanship and a big loud party vibe. Eddie himself was becoming an amazing guitarist; Brother Alex was the drummer. David Lee Roth, the lead singer, took off his shirt, showed off his muscles and looks, and leapt around the stage. (DLR’s father was Dr. Roth, a Pasadena eye doctor -- I know many of my classmates who wore glasses saw Dr. Roth. (I’ve even heard it said that it was Dr. Roth who originally funded the band to buy studio time to cut their first record, to stay unbeholden to the avaricious record companies.)
They played an auditorium dance at our high school my junior year. My friend was on the school social committee and it was his job to pay them after the show, $600.00. (It cost a buck or two to get in.) Settling up in a school office, my friend describes how David Lee Roth was a jerk, mixing tequila sunrises on the Principal’s desk; Eddie and Alex were down to earth, describing how their mom sewed sequins and fringe on their outfits. He said they were just normal guys.
I remember going to dance at another Pasadena school called Mayfield, a girl’s school, and Mammoth played on their lawn. David Lee Roth peeled off his shirt even then, with his tan, muscles, long hair flying, doing jumping jacks, cartwheels and the signature leg kicks. But we remember Eddie and his flashy guitar style.
It was not a secret in Pasadena that Mammoth would book two backyard shows a night, every weekend. The first at 8 PM, because they knew the Pasadena High School crowd would show up, crash the backyard, the cops would come and shut them down. Every night. So they’d move along to an 11PM party in someone else’s yard, a double booking, double their money. I think the police chased the Van Halens all over Pasadena for two or three years every weekend.
In any event, Alex has written this book as a tribute to his late great brother. It’s conversational, well written, and especially detailed about their early days in Holland and Pasadena, when their tight and lifelong brotherly bond came about. Their father was a professional musician, and he encouraged the boys to channel their energies in that direction. Their mother was a traditional and modest housewife who kept them polite, humble and down to earth.
Alex’s affection for his family, and especially for his brother Eddie is loud and clear. He’s a decent writer, highly introspective, thoughtful and often witty.
BROTHERS, however, is an important rock’n’roll book for what is NOT said. It’s not the typical rock’n’roll book about drugs and sex and hotel room destruction. It’s more personal and inward facing. Alex chooses not to address Eddie’s painful death, his mouth or throat cancers. He merely acknowledges that Eddie smoked continually, often two cigarettes at a time. He offers vary few details on Eddie’s marriage to the actress Valerie Bertinelli, and essentially stops in 1985 when frontman David Lee Roth left the band. Alex is very clear about this: DLR determined that Van Halen was all about DLR, so he left for a solo career. Sammy Hagar famously took his place, but Alex doesn’t talk about it, nor the Hagar years. While it’s readily apparent Alex and DLR had strong differences, when Eddie died DLR was the first person to pick up the phone.
So if you’re looking for the book about a superstar rocker and all the shlubby tales about the drugs and the girls, this book is not for you. But if you’re interested in the intimate details of a brotherly relationship, an enduring loyalty through good times and bad, BROTHERS is a good read. It’s also an important history of how two immigrant boys went from their garage in Pasadena to backyard parties, to selling millions and millions of records, filling 80,000 seat stadiums, and becoming one of the biggest bands in the world. Amazon link to BROTHERS.
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I’m a novelist in Arizona, working on my 8th novel. I write sophisticated yet highly readable fiction and good people who find themselves in troublesome situations. Never a page that will not turn. All my work is everywhere you look and on my website, www.MICHAELDASWICK.com. Especially if you like food or have a child who cooks/wants to cook, take a look at the ZIN MIGNON Series. Zin is a 13 year-old Mastermind Chef who searches for his family legacy and the secret source of his amazing talents. Fun.
More soon, all about the many many ways that Shakespeare still influences us today.
MD in AZ