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in Love
The thin line between love and hate is closely related to the thin line between love and sex. Some people think sex and love are the same thing and nothing divides the two at all; Thomas Chippering, the main character in Tim O'Brien's new novel, gets love, sex and hate completely mixed up as he chases after the objects of his so-called affections. A stereotypical college professor who looks down his intellectual, elitist nose at the world, Chippering fancies himself as quite the ladies' man, though most women seem to go out of their way to humiliate him. He is so obsessed with his pathetic interactions with the opposite sex that he keeps a detailed ledger of every greeting and glance, real or imagined. His attempts to sleep with students are disgraceful and hilarious at the same time, and predictably his clueless behavior usually lands him in a heap of trouble. Like Bob Packwood, he just doesn't get it. When Chippering's ex-wife, Lorna Sue, remarries and moves to Tampa, he begins flying to Florida every weekend to spy on her and her new husband, plotting ways to stir up trouble in their marriage. His downward spiral continues back home in Minnesota through another love affair with a married sexpot who plays along with his lunacy until she realizes that he is indeed certifiable. Confusing the issue is Chippering's status as a Vietnam vet. O'Brien's previous novels, including the National Book Award-winning Going After Cacciato and Pulitzer Prize finalist The Things They Carried, are based on the Vietnam War and its effects on those who fought in it. In Tomcat in Love, O'Brien uses Chippering's Vietnam experience to explain his insanity, which is something of a cop-out. Throughout history, women in literature have turned obsessive about lost love with no explanation whatsoever; why does a man need the horrors of war to justify his wacky dementia over women? This flaw also affects the comic tone of the story. Tomcat in Love tackles the buffoonery of men in love with hyperbole and panache, and Chippering's overbearing approach to linguistics results in a playful use of language that enhances the story. O'Brien has included all the elements of a rollicking ride through ribaldry, but then he panics and goes back to that wet blanket, Vietnam. He fails to draw clear lines between the roots of that insanity and the manifestation of love, hate, sex and nutty behavior. --Susan Wickstrom
originally published August 26, 1998 |
