Chapters 1-3: Tim O'Brien

Stories. Where would man be without them? As I began to read my new book, I found a viable topic for discussion. It is the art of story telling. I know . . . Grandpa is usually the cliché
family figure who comes up with the stories. But then what would the kids be looking forward to if Grandpa wasn't going to deliver? Stories of the past, as O'Brian writes, tells us of the past, the future, and ultimately of ourselves. Sometimes the impulse to indulge in the musings of our lives gives us a deeper meaning to what we may see as significant--enough to love the past for recollection. Writers depend on simple truths of a story. They take a turn from one place and describe how it was significant to them at the time the musing begins. They can express how at one time it was the place where certain activities happened, as if the place had a story to tell or eyes to report. Places have the silent voice of memory imprinted in the writer's mind. Stories--they are the pasts voice and the futures life. We can learn a lot of what we consider fain but monotonous experience. Let the silence take a tour, let it digress.