Tunnels, Towers, and Everything Imaginable Between (Zoom)
Winter (14+ hours) | Registration opens 11/24/2025 12:00 AM EST
In this Zoom course we will read three novels written about the Viet Nam War and its aftermath – Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien (1978), Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson (2002), and The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (2014). Our focus will be neither a thoughtful history of the war nor a comprehensive study of all the literature coming out that experience: instead, we will approach these books as a psychological journey into the “mind” of his particular war in the way Conrad’s Heart of Darkness was a journey into the “mind” of ivory trade in the Congo.
These are challenging works, and the reading for this class will involve an average of 170 pages a week; but tackling them together will be illuminating and wondrous. Two of the novels (Cacciato and Smoke) were awarded the National Book Award, and The Sympathizer won a Pulitzer.
Discussion will be the engine for our classes, and respect for everyone’s ideas should set our tone.
Required Books:
Going After Cacciato - Tim O’Brien (ISBN-13: 978-0767904421)
The Sympathizer - Viet Thanh Nguyen
(ISBN-13: 978-0802124944)
Tree of Smoke - Denis Johnson (ISBN-13: 978-0312427740)
Jon Stableford
Jon holds degrees from Williams College and Wesleyan University and for 43 years taught secondary school English, the last 34 of them at Phillips Academy, Andover, MA. In 2010, he and his wife Cindy retired to South Strafford, VT and have ever since had a close relationship with Osher at Dartmouth. He writes occasional pieces for The Valley News.