All of O'Brien's stories can be taken two ways- with an air of truth that the events unfolded in the ways described or with skepticism that it was all pretty much made up. I'd like to believe that most were true, yet it was nice to read on page 171 O'Brien's declaration of the real: "Here is the happening-truth. I was once a soldier. There were many bodies, real bodies with real faces, but I was young then and I was afraid to look. And now, twenty years later, I'm left with faceless responsibilty and faceless grief." He admits what he's held on to throughout the book and throughout the past twenty years. We can hold onto the truth that the bodies and guilt and responsibility is real, even if the details are made up at times.
We fabricate stories all the time. That doesn't mean we're liars or our lives are any less interesting. It means that the added details are usually used to make the listener pay more attention and leave remembering what you said. I think that's what O'Brien truly anticipated happening through his story telling.
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