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July, July by Tim O’Brien Rating: ••• (Recommended)
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Now, and Then Tim O’Brien deftly weaves July 1969 with July 2000 in his new novel, July, July, as he offers portraits of a dozen characters as they gather for their 30^th college reunion (albeit a year late, for reasons any busy Boomer would understand), and recall those days gone by. Some readers may think this has been done too often before, but in O’Brien’s hands, the characters are better defined, the dialogue more realistic, and the humanity more poignant, than with almost any other artist. Here’s an excerpt from early in the book, starting on page 7, with reunion attendees talking about a classmate who was recently killed: “It was July 7, 2002, a humid Friday evening. The war was over, passions were moot, and the band played slow, hallowed-out versions of an old Buffalo Springfield tune. For everyone, there was a sense of nostalgia made fluid by present possibility. ‘So sad, so bizarre,’ Amy Robinson was saying, ‘but so predictable, too. The old Karenness, that’s what killed her. She never stopped being Karen. ‘Who did it?’ said Jan Heubner. Amy wagged her head. ‘Nobody knows for sure. Some guy she had a crush on, some creep, which is par for Karen’s course. Never any luck.’ ‘Never, ever,’ Jan said. ‘And the thing is, she could’ve been a knockout, all the ingredients. That gorgeous red hair, tons and tons of it. I mean, she was a knockout.’ ‘Weight problem, of course,’ said Amy. ‘So true,’ said Jan. ‘Plus her age. Face it, she was piling up the mileage like all of us.’ Amy sighed. ‘Total shame, isn’t it? The golden generation. Such big dreams – kick ass, never die – but somehow it all went poof. Hard thing to swallow, but biology doesn’t have politics. The old bod, you know? Just keeps doing its silly, deadly, boring shit.’ ‘True again,’ said Jan, and blinked down at her hands. ‘What happened to us?’ ‘Got me,’ said Amy. ‘Maybe the Monkees.’ ‘Sorry?’ ‘Plain as day,’ Jan said. ‘A whole generation kicks off with the Monkees, how the heck could we expect things to work out? “I’m a believer, I couldn’t leave her” – I mean, yikes, talk about starting off on the wrong foot. So naïve I want to cry, Last train to Clarksville, babe, and we’re all aboard.’ Amy nodded. ‘You’re right,’ said Jan. ‘May I ask a question?’ ‘Ask.’ ‘Where’s our vodka?’” Over the remaining 300 pages of July, July, readers get to meet more characters and laugh and sigh and cry with them. O’Brien packs more into these pages, and into the two days of the college reunion, than some writers could present in a dozen books. Steve Hopkins, October 9, 2002
ã 2002 Hopkins and Company, LLC The recommendation rating for this book appeared in the December 2002 issue of Executive Times For Reprint Permission, Contact: Hopkins & Company, LLC • 723 North Kenilworth Avenue • Oak Park, IL 60302 Phone: 708-466-4650 • Fax: 708-386-8687 E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com www.hopkinsandcompany.com