Richmond, VA. - GO READ, in the second year of a three-year initiative to bring
together residents of greater Richmond through reading and discussion of a designated
book, has selected The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, as the text for 2003.
Published in 1990, the widely acclaimed book is regarded as the quintessential
fictional work about the Vietnam War. Of the selection, Sandy Stoddart, a
steering committee member of GO READ, said, “In conversation with Ernest J. Gaines,
last year’s author, about possible book selections for this year, he spoke really favorably
about Tim O’Brien’s work and his willingness to engage the public in conversation
regarding issues in his book. This book gives the community an opportunity to explore a
completely different, though no less compelling, topic from last year’s book.”
GO READ programs will be held in libraries, schools and book-discussion groups in
the fall, culminating with a visit by O’Brien immediately following Veteran’s Day for a
student forum and community reading at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 815 East Grace
Street, in downtown Richmond on Thursday, November 13. Community organizations
are encouraged to participate. Residents are urged to read the book over the summer in
preparation for these events.
GO READ is intended to have a lasting impact on the community by increasing
interaction through a shared reading experience. GO READ brings major authors to a
new and diverse audience and promotes discussion between adults and young people.
The community is encouraged to visit libraries, book stores and attend related special
events.
The book selected in 2002, the inaugural year of the program, was A Lesson Before
Dying by Ernest J. Gaines. To date, more than 30,000 people in the region have read A
Lesson Before Dying. This estimate is based on participation by high schools and
colleges; circulation figures from area libraries; the number of “tool kits” of auxiliary
materials distributed by libraries; prisons and jails that purchased the books; visits to the
GO READ website, and attendance at Gaines’ student forum and reading. The figure
does not include area book groups, faith organizations and individuals who may have
read the book. A Lesson Before Dying was the best-selling book of 2002 at Barnes &
Noble Booksellers in the Richmond area.
Tim O’Brien was born in 1946 in Austin, Minnesota, and spent most of his youth in
the small town of Worthington, Minnesota. He was graduated summa cum laude from
Macalester College in 1968. From February 1969 to March 1970 he was an infantryman
with the U.S. Army in Vietnam, where he received the Purple Heart. After serving in
Vietnam, he pursued graduate studies in government at Harvard University. He was a
national affairs reporter for The Washington Post from 1973 to 1974.
The Things They Carried, received France’s prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre
Etranger, and was a finalist for the Pulizer Prize for fiction and the National Book Critics
Circle Award. O’Brien also is the author of Going After Cacciato, which received the
National Book Award for fiction. In the Lake of the Woods, a novel published in
1994, received the James Fenimore Cooper Prize from the Society of American
Historians and was named best novel of the year by Time magazine. O’Brien’s other
books are If I Die in a Combat Zone, Northern Lights, The Nuclear Age, Tomcat in
Love, and July, July. His short stories have appeared in numerous literary and popular
magazines, including The New Yorker, Esquire, Harper’s, The Atlantic, Playboy, and
Ploughshares, and in several editions of The Best American Short Stories and The O.
Henry Prize Stories.
O’Brien has been honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the
Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He is a member of
the Society of American Historians and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
O’Brien currently holds the Roy F. and Joann Cole Mitte Chair in Creative writing at
Southwest Texas State University. His most recent novel is July, July, published in 2002
by Houghton Mifflin.
Information on the book, the author, programs, resources and discussions is available
on the GO READ website, www.goreadrichmond.com or by phoning 804.646.0290.
