July, July Overview
Both a novel and a short story cycle that recalls similar works of other contemporary American realists, most notably Jennifer Egan, Raymond Carver, and Elizabeth Strout, Tim O’Brien’s July, July (2002) is an ensemble narrative told from an omniscient point of view. Ten graduates of the class of 1969 return to their tiny Minnesota alma mater for a 30-year class reunion. Interspersed between accounts of the events of the weekend get-together are the stories of each character’s defining life moment. These stories of love and loss, expectation and disappointment become a cultural biography of the generation that came of age in the 1960s with their idealism, their sense of freedom, and their optimism. Among other themes, O’Brien explores themes of the loss of innocence, the dynamic of regret, the need for hope, the importance of love, and the relationship between an individual and the era in which they live.
Study Pack
The July, July Study Pack contains:
