“How to Tell a True War Story” shows the complex relationship between the war experience and storytelling. It is told half from O’Brien’s role as a soldier, as a reprise of several old Vietnam stories, and half from his role as a storyteller. O’Brien’s narrative shows that a storyteller has the power to shape his or her listeners’ experiences and opinions. Much in the same way that the war distorts the soldier’s perceptions of right and wrong, O’Brien’s story distorts our perceptions of beauty and ugliness. He tells Curt Lemon’s death as a love story. Despite its gruesomeness, he describes the scene as beautiful, focusing on the sunlight rather than the gore. Blood and carnage are never discussed, not even as O'Brien and Dave Jensen are forced to shimmy up the tree in order to throw down Curt Lemon’s body parts. The way O'Brien describes this action, and the death in general, is unspecific and detached. His storytelling functions as a salve that allows him to deal with the complexity of the war experience, so much even as to turn the story of Curt Lemon from a war story to a love story. A true war story, O'Brien explains, has an absolute allegiance to evil that renders commonly held storytelling notions of courage and pride. When we learn that Rat Kiley sends a letter to Kurt Lemon’s sister, explaining the virtues of his fellow soldier after his death, we expect the death and the story to have a positive outcome. The essence of the true war story lies in the reality of the situation: the sister does not respond, and Kiley reacts immaturely. This irony makes sense, O'Brien contends, both because Kiley is young and because he has been exposed to such unspeakable things. He calls the sister a “dumb cooze” not because he is a misogynist but because it is his way of negotiating anger. Blame must be assigned, Kiley rationalizes in his anger, and O'Brien sees the truth in Kiley’s emotions. A true war story is