Final Thoughts and Life Lessons

Despite being over 30 years younger than the characters in July, July, I was able to relate to the character, but more importantly, I was able to learn from them.  

Tim O'Brien said in the interviews that I read that one aspect that he liked about his book is that anyone can relate to the characters.  They are so diverse that every reader can find a bit of themselves in at least one of them.  I connected to the young, hopeful versions of all of the characters.  It almost scared me to think that I could end up like these people did, unhappy with their decisions in life.  The message that I took out of the book is that although their lives didn't happen exactly as they hoped they would when they were young, life for them has turned out alright.  I am getting to the point in my life (although I am 4 years younger than these characters were in 1969) when I am beginning to create aspirations for my future.  Reading this book was a reality check for me.  My dreams may not all come true but It will be okay.  I will change and that is fine.  The characters in July, July, look back on mistakes that they have made.  I know that I will make mistakes.  In fact, I can think of numerous mistakes that I have already made.  I have learned from them gotten past them and am happy.

I do not think that July, July is AP worthy.  Other AP worthy books that I have read have multiple complicated themes, but this isn't true in this book.  The theme in this book is that people may not achieve their dreams or their goals may change but they can still be happy.  Although this is an important live lesson, it is not as complex as themes of other books.  Although I am claiming that this book is not AP worthy I will say that I think that it is an important book for young adults and older adults to read.  Depending on the age of the reader, different people will get different understandings out of this book.  It is important for young people to understand that all of their dreams may not come true and for older adults to understand that they can move past their mistakes to be happy.  I think this book would be a good one to read with a book club so readers could discuss their different reactions to the characters and the events that are described.

All in all, I liked Tim O'Brien's book, July, July. The characters were described well and although they frustrated me I also felt bad for them and understood them.  I enjoyed hearing the stories of all of the different characters.  I liked that it was a character driven book instead of a plot driven book.  The organization of the book was helpful to understanding it's meaning.  I have learned an important lesson about live and growing older from this book.  I highly recommend it for others to read and hope to read it again myself when I am older.

Cox, Tom. "Overlooked Classics: July, July by Tim O'Brien." The Gardian. The Gardian, 18 Apr. 2012. Web. 27 Jan. 2015.
"Interview with Tim O'Brien." ReadersRead.com. Writers Write, n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2015.
Varty, Nora. "A Q&A With Tim O'Brien." Texas Monthly. N.p., Nov. 2002. Web. 27 Jan. 2015.

A New Understanding

When I first finished July, July, I was still lost as to its meaning.  Two lines in the last few chapters stood out to me as important.  The first was that "love, Dorothy thought, was plainly not all you needed" (273).  She goes on to list other necessities to life including the surgeries and medicine that she has needed to survive.  To me this quote was a reflection on the characters' obsession with love.  Dorothy is realizing that love is not the only important aspect of a well lived life. Another impactful passage was the one at the very end of the book.  The narration switches back and forth between characters every sentence or two showing the moments that got them to where they are now.

"'Baby,' Spook said, and Harmon Osterberg kicked a cantaloupe at Ellie Abbot, and Billy Burned his draft card, and Karen burns eyed a newly hired professor of sociology.  It was 3:11 A.M., Sunday Morning, July 9, 2000, but over the bleak, flaming grasslands it was July now, July, always"(322).

This passage reviles the idea that live moves on yet always stays the same.  Things are as they always will be.  It shows a sad yet content tone towards the characters' lives.  

After thinking about the ending for a bit I still felt that I was missing a few key aspects to the book so I found a few interviews with Tim O'Brien about the book to see what he had to say about it.  July, July is a reflection on the baby boomer generation.  The characters graduated college in 1969.  This was a year when many important changes were happening in the world.  There were civil rights movements, The Vietnam war and the moon landing to name a few.  The class of '69 graduated full of hope and expectations for their future.  Then as they grew older, reality hit them, important life-altering events happened to them and they changed.  By the end of the reunion they are beginning to accept their lives more and are content with them.

In my previous posts I said that the characters were static, but now I think that, on the contrary they are very dynamic.  Before, I had overlooked what they were like immediately after graduating college.  I didn't realize that the stories about each character explained the events changed them.  For example, being in the war changed David Todd, breast cancer changed Dorothy Stier, dodging the draft changed Billy McMann and being caught stealing changed Paulette Haslo.  Right before these events the characters were their happy-go-lucky selves like they were in college.  Then they changed into their unhappy older selves.  The reunion brings them all back together and brings back the memories from the past.  They start hoping again.  They try to find love.  They wonder what would have happened if one choice they had made was different: if they hadn't told that one lie, or lost their leg, or stayed in America.  In the end they realize that they are content with their lives.  The last two sentences of the book are "'Follow me, sweetheart.  We're golden'"(322).  This line shows that they are going to leave their past lives behind and move forward.  Another piece of evidence showing this is how all of them decide that they will not go to any more reunions.  During the reunion they got lost in their pasts and they don't want that to happen again.

Another statement that I made in earlier posts was that the characters were very unlikable.  I do not think that the characters are so disagreeable anymore. Now I agree with a statement that Tim O'Brien made in a interview with Texas Monthly about one story, but I think it applies to all of them.  He said that "the story is partly funny, partly infuriating, and partly pitiful".  I think that this is a perfect description of the book.  It explains why I was very frustrated with the characters, but also felt bad for them.  Some of the decisions that the characters make are bad, but it is hard not to feel bad for them given the life that they have found themselves in.  Earlier in the book I thought that Tim O'Brien was being critical of the characters and the time but now I think that he is using the characters to convey the truth about growing old.  This makes the novel a coming of age story for adults.

After finishing July, July and reading Tim O'Brien's notes on the book I feel like I understand the meaning of the book better but in no way understand all of it.  This is the type of book that would be helpful to reread when I am older.  I am sure I would have a very different reaction if I read this when I was fifty.


Cox, Tom. "Overlooked Classics: July, July by Tim O'Brien." The Gardian. The Gardian, 18 Apr. 2012. Web. 27 Jan. 2015.

"Interview with Tim O'Brien." ReadersRead.com. Writers Write, n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2015.

Varty, Nora. "A Q&A With Tim O'Brien." Texas Monthly. N.p., Nov. 2002. Web. 27 Jan. 2015.

Wishing for Dynamic Characters

In most character driven books the characters change over the course of the book.  The change in the character reveals the theme of the book.  This happened in Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison.  The main character, Milkman, was self-centered and dependent on others in the beginning of the book.  As the book continued, he slowly became nicer.  A series of events in the book spark a change in his character.  By the end of the book, Milkman vows to take responsibility and not to leave is friends and family behind as he becomes more independent.

I have read three quarters of July, July none of the 11 main characters have changed significantly.  This is very frustrating for me as a reader because, as I have said in previous posts, the characters are very flawed.  I was expecting the characters to show change by this point in the book.

I am doing them some injustice in saying that they have not changed at all for a few reasons.  Firstly,  Just being at a reunion might be bringing back memories of their college lives prompting them to act like twenty-year-olds.  Secondly, they have changed a bit—at least they have recognized some of their flaws.  As I saw in Song of Solomon, being aware of his faults was the first step to Milkman's character change.

Ellie holds a deep secret about an affair that she had with one of her old classmates the the year before.  The man, Harmon, drowned during one of their getaways.  Since then Ellie has never been able to rid her mind of the image of Harmon's body slipping beneath the surface of the lake.  She promises herself that "...she [will] never tell.  She [will] brace herself.  She [will] endure the terror of discovery"(180).  At the reunion, however, she brakes this promise by confessing her story to her close friend, Paulette.  This shows that she is slowly changing to be more open about her secret.  She is not totally changed, however, because she is still very sad about the event and afraid that the police will come after her.  Sometimes she even sees Harmon drowning in her mind as if it is happening in front of her.

In the chapter about Dorothy, we learn that she lost a breast to cancer and is having troubles in her marriage because of it.  Not only does she think that she is ugly, her husband, Ron, is not giving her as much attention as the wishes he was.   In the story we hear about her, she is frustrated with her appearance so runs outside topless and begs Ron to look at her chest.  Ron replies that "'It makes [him] want to cry'"(194).  This makes Dorothy feel unworthy.  Her outlook changes, however while she is preparing for Harmon and Karen's memorial service.  As she stands in front of the mirror the is "...explaining to herself how happy she [is], how the cancer [has] been mostly beaten—eight nodes, knock on wood—and how her boys [are] two of the best kids on earth, and how Ron [is] completely devoted to her..."(185).  She recognizes that despite some misfortune that she has encountered she is very fortunate and has many things to be thankful for.

I am hoping that in the last quarter of the book the characters will begin to change more.  If they don't there must be a reason that O'Brien wrote the book this way.  Most books have characters that change in some way throughout the course of the story.  The static characters in July, July, are an important stylistic choice made by the author.  I don't know what it means but am excited to learn more upon I finishing the book.

Unlikable Characters

After reading half of the book one thing I can say for sure is that I don't like any of the characters.  They only care about love and relationships.  Even more annoying is the fact that the relationships that they care about often date all the way back to their college years.  Many of these are relationships that have long since ended.

For example, Billy still holds a grudge against Dorothy for not running away to Canada with him way back in 1969.  He is always asking her "'How's Ron?'"(118).  Ron is Dorothy's husband and the person that she was seeing when she decided not to run away with Billy, her boyfriend at the time.  Billy even continues to love Dorothy through a marriage with another woman.  It is understandable that he would be jealous and unhappy, but it is unreasonable for him to hold a grudge for thirty years.

Another character with relationship problems is Spook.  She is married to two men but feels the need to fall in love with a third.  Her two husbands don't mind her loving the two of them, but they are not willing to let another man into the relationship and the new man does not want to be included either.  After this new man leaves, Spook falls into despair. "Her unhappiness, Spook realized, had little to do with [the man] and very much to do with her own self esteem"(95).  Spook is in love with falling in love.  She always needs someone new and different.  She is very selfish and takes both of her devoted husbands for granted.

I could go on and on about all of the characters and their relationship problems, but I think you get the point.  The issues that all the characters have lead back to their relationships.  In the present time of the book, the characters are in their fifties and they still act like twenty-year-olds.  This is one of the main common faults among the characters that makes me hate them.  Luckily I am supposed to hate the characters.  All of them are so unlikable for their whims and follies that I can't help but get frustrated with them.  It reminds me of Brave New World, and how Bernard, and John seemed likable but proved to have more faults than redeeming qualities.  I didn't like the decisions they made or the way that they acted.  Unlikable characters seem to show up often in the books we have read.  Milkman, Guitar, Lenina, and Offred are other examples that come to mind.  I know that I am supposed to dislike the characters in July, July, but why did O'Brien write them that way?

It seems to be a critique on the time period.  He is trying to prove that the Vietnam War affected everyone's lives.  He says in the book that, "...in some nationwide darkroom, the most ordinary human snapshots would be fixed in memory by the acidic wash of war—the music, the lingo, the evening news"(75).  This passage explains exactly the point that O'Brien is attempting to convey: the Vietnam war affected everything.  This could explain why his characters seem to be trapped in their past.  They were in their twenties during the war, so in a way those years were taken away from them and they are now going to live as if they were still twenty for the rest of their lives.

Intermingling Past and Present

An important stylistic aspect of July, July is the organization of the chapters.  The first chapter takes place in 2000 at a college reunion (I talked about this chapter in my previous entry).  After that, the second chapter delves into the story of David Todd in the Vietnam War.  The third chapter goes back to the reunion.  The forth chapter discusses why Amy left her husband, Bobby, and the fifth chapter talks about Jan Huebner's naked photography business.  The chapters about individual characters are flashbacks into their pasts and explain what happened to them to make them so unhappy.  Each chapter is a short story describing a specific event that has greatly affected the character's life.  David Todd, for example, was shot in both feet in a near death experience where he chooses to live in a world where his girlfriend will most likely leave him rather than die from his injury. The events described in each chapter take place between the characters' college graduation and the reunion.

The chapters that take place during the reunion are in chronological order starting at the beginning of the party and continuing through the night and into the morning.  These chapters switch around point of view within the section.  During this time I see the connections between the characters' pasts and the way they are behaving in the present.  In chapter three, one taking place at the reunion, Dorothy comforts Paulette as Paulette whimpers that she is a "'...stinky certified crook.  All [she] did, [she] tried to be nice... [She] tried and tried, just kept trying, and now [she's] a putrid, barfing criminal.  They arrested [her]'"(40).  When I first read this I was very confused an curious as to what she could have done and why she would of done it.  Later on, in chapter eleven, I learned that Paulette broke into the home of her dead boyfriend's house to retrieve a few of her possessions and is caught by the man's widow.  The balance of flashbacks and present stories helps build a more complete image of who the characters are.  It also makes the book more interesting because the present and the past foreshadow each other.  For this reason, I always have questions about the characters formulating in my mind as I read.

Where as many modern books are plot driven, July, July is a character driven book.  Tim O'Brien has many equally important characters in his book.  This allows him to develop and analyze the changes in each character instead of only showing change in one main character.  The separate chapters on each character allows the reader to understand the character's motives in the present.

In my next blog post I will analyze the characters, now they change, and their similarities.

Officially a Thirtieth Reunion

The first twenty pages of July, July by Tim O'Brien are also the first chapter, entitled "Class of '69". This refers to the college graduating class whose reunion is the setting of this opening chapter. Officially, as described by O'Brien, it is the class's thirtieth reunion, but seeing that the month is July 2000, it is in reality, the thirty-first reunion.  Throughout this chapter the reader meets twelve members of the class of '69. Each person has a specific personality, and as I was reading I found it difficult to keep all of the characters and their relations to others organized in my head.  It helped me to write out a description of each one.

Amy Robinson - Boyish figure, has always had bad luck, had a failed marriage, practices criminal law

Jan Huebner - Not pretty, wears too much makeup

Karen Burns - Murdered the year before, died single, was a hopeful person

Marv Bertel - Likes Spook Spinelli

Spook Spinelli - Danced with Billy, in a double marriage

Billy McMann - Hates and loves Dorothy, owns a chain of hardware stores

Dorothy Stier - Knows that Billy loves her, has a husband an kids, had breast cancer

Ellie Abbott - Depressed, married to a man named Mark, leaves the reunion early, something happened between her and Harmon

David Todd - Lost his leg, divorced from Marla, wants Marla back, leaves the reunion early

Marla Dempsey - Owns a furniture business, smokes, insecure about her body

Paulette Haslo - Minister, former basketball player,  gets very drunk at the reunion

Harmon Osterberg - Drowned during previous summer, dentist

All of these characters have shallow, flawed personalities.  Thirty-one years after graduating college they are still caught up in their college crushes, flings, and relationships.  They spend the party conversing about "Death, marriage, children, divorce, betrayal, loss, grief, disease..."(7).  Many of this topics are very unpleasant to talk about.  A few people even contemplate the cause of death of fellow classmates Karen and Harmon.  They are so self absorbed that they are unaware of the affect their conversations are having on others.  "Ellie was hoping that Marla would stop talking about their classmate Harmon Osterberg, who had drowned last summer..."(10).  In this chapter it is made clear that something happened between Harmon and Ellie that makes the topic of his death uncomfortable for her.  Another topic of conversation is relationships.  As old classmates talk amongst one other, a few of them attempt to revive past relationships.  "...David found it impossible to believe that [he and Marla] would not somehow end up living together..."(12).  David and Marla, however, were already married and got divorced.  David is desperate for a woman who he cannot have.  All in all, idea that I got out of this chapter is that none of the characters are happy with their life.  They therefore attempt to revive their past lives in hope of being happy again.

So far I like the writing style of the book.  O'Brien uses a good mixture of description and dialogue to tell the story.  He also uses a third person omniscient point of view so the reader can hear the thoughts of all of the characters.  I do not like the characters themselves because of their shallowness. I am, however, looking forward to learning about what happened to each of the members of the graduating class of '69 between 1969 and 2000 to change them into the people they are in the first chapter.