Tim O'Brien makes a habit of interrupting the flow of the many short stories thus far to remind us that every story is false in reality, but true in emotion. These constant interjections may seem annoying and even infuriating at times, but they are that way by design not to spite the reader, but to instill a sense of uncertainty about the truth behind anything and everything Tim writes. In "How to Tell a True War Story", the very first line is simply "This is true." Despite the fact that the very title page of the novel states that everything is a work of fiction, this single line is enough to make most readers stop and question the validity of both this line and of the book's claim as a work of fiction. If it's true, then Tim has been lying since before a single short story could be read, and if it's false then O'Brien the narrator is lying and can't be trusted. Either way, someone one of the two perspectives seems like it must be false. Exc...
But I mean some long stories still count as short stories because they're short by the standard definition of a "short story" but they're still kinda long so I wouldn't consider them short really I mean who determines whether a story is short or not, c'mon it's all arbitrary anyways but fine let's just call them "short" whatever who cares.