No you weren't. You're making this up.
"We sat for a while longer, then I started to get up, except I was still feeling the wobbles in my head. Jorgenson reached out and steadied me.
'We're even now?' he said.
'Pretty much.' pg. 207
Sound familiar, anybody? But of course! It's the more elaborate version of the "I Broke My Own Nose and Now We're Friends!" story. I was kind of bummed that Rat Kiley had a meltdown and had to leave, because he is way up there on my favorite characters in TTTC list...that is, if I had one. Initially, I was angry at Jorgenson, like Tim, for mistreating him. However, when Tim is told when he rejoins the regiment that Jorgenson knows he messed up, has improved, and then attempts to make an apology but Tim refuses and wants revenge is when I get annoyed at his douche-ness. I think as readers we hold the author to a higher standard, even when he becomes a character in a book, and especially after he gives sagely wisdom in his war stories. In this though, he becomes an antihero. Maybe he wanted to be the stereotypical bad guy obsessed with revenge for a while.
That's right. Tim O'Brien is Jafar.
The cicadas outside my house have some wicked rhythm tonight.
ReplyDeleteOh. It took me a long time to find the nose-breaking passage. I thought they were more similar than they were, but they're undeniably similar, still:
"He showed him what he'd done and asked if everything was square between them."
I was also disappointed with O'Brien. I wanted to stop him, but there's no stopping those revenge-hungry book characters.
I like your point about holding the speaker to a higher standard because we feel closer to him.
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