Exhaustive ... A seasoned critic and scholar who has published studies of Hemingway and war literature, Vernon also sleuthed through a veritable mountain of reference material ... Vernon sometimes makes the mistake of letting the research drive his narrative ... Vernon avoids the classic biographer’s curse of falling in love with his subject.
This braiding of personal history and the creative journey poignantly finds O’Brien grappling with the perils of fame, masculinity, and war, while expanding the boundaries of storytelling.
Comprehensive ... It’s a hefty volume at over 500 pages, and Veron’s plot summaries of O’Brien’s novels are sometimes overly long. However, splicing illustrative passages from the texts allows him to zero in on key aspects of O’Brien’s writings. Peace Is a Shy Thing is in part a fan’s notes; the men’s 20-plus year friendship provides the bedrock of O’Brien’s candid interviews, presenting a portrait of a giant in American letters.
