University of Nebraska-Lincoln English Professor Gerald Shapiro was far from a colleague when he first met Tim O'Brien.
"I met him when I was at the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference in 1985 in Vermont," Shapiro said. "(Tim O'Brien) was one of the star faculty - and I was a waiter."
It's not what you think. Shapiro had been awarded a fellowship to Bread Loaf, and one of the requirements of the prestigious honor was that he wait tables three times a day.
Now, Shapiro is among UNL faculty and students reveling in the presence of one of America's great contemporary authors. O'Brien is just days into a two-week residency with the English Department and will host a reading and commentary tonight at 7:30 at the Nebraska Union Auditorium.
Considered one of the great voices of the Vietnam War, O'Brien has had an illustrious career spanning four decades. His novel "Going After Cacciato" won the National Book Award, and "The Things They Carried" was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and has earned the status of a modern classic.
O'Brien was drawn to UNL on multiple accounts, having developed relationships with numerous faculty members and appreciating the "cordiality and niceness" of the invitation.
The opportunity also offers the author a break from routine. His typical day seats him at a desk writing from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, and his typical days include weekends, holidays and birthdays - even his wife's birthday.
"That has caused some trouble," O'Brien joked at a question-and-answer session Wednesday.
As a Vietnam veteran, the subject of war rarely escapes O'Brien in discussions, nor does his involvement escape his own personal thoughts. Escapes from regularity, such as his brief stay in Nebraska, tend to inspire reflection.
"I think about that more often than you'd expect," O'Brien said. "I get reflective. When I'm flying I look down on the country below and realize I've turned 60, realize what my life would have been had (I) not been drafted or went to Canada.
"It's complete irony in that I hated going to the war, I opposed it in college, and all these years later now it's become, publicly, the focus of my life. That's how I'm known. Someday I want to write about that."
O'Brien is considered by many to be the most prominent writer to ever take up residency at UNL. Though his time is short, the author is staying busy, working to teach and encourage as many people as possible. Shapiro said O'Brien has been more than accommodating, agreeing to everything proposed to him.
Students and faculty already have embraced his presence and the opportunity he provides. While he teaches just one 12-student graduate class, O'Brien has been readily available to those seeking him out. On Wednesday, he spoke in an open question-and-answer session in the library of Andrews Hall.
"I think one of the ongoing challenges for an English department is to convince your students that literature isn't a dead thing," Shapiro said. "It's alive. It's being made. It's not just this thing that got made by dead people. … One of the great things to do is to put students into a room with a great author. He's there, and they've read his work, and he's there to answer.
"This opportunity, it's invaluable, and not only to people who are writers."
Tonight's event will be the largest of O'Brien's stay and is open to the public. For most people, the opportunity to be taught and entertained by a writer of O'Brien's caliber is rare.
O'Brien understands the expectations placed on him as a teacher, whether through informal discussion or in a classroom. In his later years, he has developed an eagerness to give back to the art that has sustained him over the years, to share his knowledge and experience and encourage the popularity of literature.
"I figure if you bring someone in, you don't want to just hear something you could read in a book," O'Brien said. "If I went, I'd want to hear at least some remarks about whatever topic. I like to mix in remarks about fiction and the role of fiction in our society. I'm going to be talking about the power of story in our lives, how it helps us heal, how stories encourage us."
Being a war veteran and a notable figure - not to mention a notable voice of and for veterans - has placed O'Brien in a unique situation. Finding himself enveloped in a persona, he has found himself reacting to the Vietnam War to a public audience while dealing with the private aftermath shared by all former soldiers.
That contrast is what may distinguish O'Brien's work from other literature on war. In many of his stories, war provides setting and conflict, while human nature assumes the subject.
"My stories about war, by and large, avoid bombs and war maneuvers," O'Brien said. "They're really about these individual human beings, their characters; stories about the human heart, about terror, about joy. The difference is the stress that takes place in a war - there's that pressure of imminent peril and your own mortality. It's all around us in the real world … you look at the world in a brand new way, value things you never knew you valued."
jonathancrowl@dailynebraskan.com
