The Things They Carried
by Tim O'Brien
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Book Reviews of The Things They Carried
Book Review: Inaccurate, misleading, and confusing
Summary: 1 Stars
Books are usually written a certain way; with a plot, set characters, conflicts, et cetera. The way Tim O'Brien portrays his story, The Things They Carried, is different than most books and his incorporation of truth and fiction tend to throw the reader off. Tim O'Brien constantly contradicts himself throughout the novel, and continually tells the reader that he or she won't be able to comprehend what he is trying to explain.
My first point I would like to present is the book is full of fabrication. Right away, before the book even begins, on the copyright page, it clearly states, "This is a work of fiction. Except for a few details regarding the author's own life, all the incidents, names, and characters are imaginary." How is the reader supposed to differentiate between reality and O'Brien's stories when right off the bat we are told that a good majority of the book is a falsehood?
The second thing I would like to point out is that Tim O'Brien openly tells us that the book is a lie, and he will tell us these stories in hope that we might understand what he went through. Though he expects us to understand even when he doesn't tell us the difference between "story-truth" and "happening-truth". Tim O'Brien provides us with the chapter Good Form that blatantly tells that the whole book is a falsehood. The author says "I'm forty-three years old, true, and I'm a writer now, and a long time ago I walked through Quang Ngai Province as a foot soldier. Almost everything else is invented." As a reader, this unlocked emotion such as frustration because it felt like you were being deceived, and to find out the whole thing was made up really bewilders you. When this information is revealed, you are already a good deal through he book, and then to find out that the stories are just imaginary makes you ask yourself, what was the point of reading this then?
Also, the way to novel is perpetrated also perplexes the reader. The story is very jumbled and doesn't follow or keep up with itself. In my opinion, there are pointless stories being told in the novel, stories that irrelevant to telling a war story. I didn't find this book favorable, especially in the inconsistency of the tales.
I also wonder why O'Brien would want to publish this novel. Even though the characters were false and probably a lot of the stories he told were false as well, there are just some stories that were embarrassing. For example, the chapter The Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong is a chapter about a man expressing negative qualities while trying to keep a relationship with his girlfriend. The chapter only shows the man's bad side in expressing his paranoia and desperation. Also, in one of the last chapters, The Lives of the Dead, it tells a tale of O'Brien's love for a nine-year-old girl. He claims that it was "as deep and rich as love could get" (pg. 228). When he is explaining his love for this girl, I just couldn't help but feel that the author was kind of sketchy, and even though this story might not actually be true, it gives the reader a strange view of the author. I one hundred percent believe that it is impossible for nine-year olds to fall in love.
I think it's fair to say that a good majority of the class wasn't able to comprehend the point of the book, especially since none of us have fought in a war. Not only were non-veterans dissatisfied with this book, but also actual Vietnam War veterans had problems with it. One customer from an amazon.com review writes, "I thought the book was well written and interesting and all that. But speaking as a Vietnam vet, 1st Cav., Medivac, the only thing I can say is that the book just wasn't like what I really saw". Another customer responds to the book, "As a veteran of almost four years in Viet-Nam, I was very disappointed by the book in its attempts to say, in effect, `Look how sensitive I am; Oh, I am such a sensitive caring person.'" This clearly demonstrates this book wasn't an accurate account of what happened, or what it was supposed to feel and look like.
In conclusion, I think The Things They Carried was a book full of lies that we could never understand. I acknowledge that some truth is incorporated into this story, but the book is confusing and misleading, and might lead to people getting their facts wrong about Vietnam. The way it was written made it even more difficult for the reader to follow along. I may be ignorant to what actually happened during the Vietnam war and what the soldier's experienced, but I think a more realistic depiction of the war would have a more profound effect on the people who would happen to pick this book up.
Book Review: Pro-US readers need not apply
Summary: 2 Stars
Sorry to interrupt the love-fest. But now, as Paul Harvey says, here is the "rest of the story"...
This book is a disaster. Right off the bat, I should have known there might be a problem when the jacket touted the winning of some prestigious French book award. If this doesn't mean something to you, go ahead and skip the rest of this review, as you are hereby decreed not qualified to read it.
If you love this country and what we stand for (or at least, if you love what we historically at least TRY to stand for), if you can comment on someone being patriotic without feeling the knee-jerk need to utilize the term "jingoistic" in close proximity, if you recognize what a brutal and dastardly threat communism was/is to this planet.... this book is not for you.
First off, note that I gave this book two stars, not one, or the proverbial "zero if I could have." This book DOES happen to have some redeeming value. The descriptions of Army life in Vietnam are at least somewhat interesting, as penned by a man who apparently was at least there, and will generate at least SOME interest by those who enjoy reading about this war, or US military history in general. That is about the limit on the usefulness of this book. The Vietnam conflict was a controversial chapter in this great country's history, and it is certainly legitimate to question our need to become (so deeply) involved there. Unfortunately, this isn't the book to properly guide you through this painful history lesson in an unbiased manner.
The first and most obvious complaint against this book is that it is FICTION... worse yet, it is quite insidiously fiction, as it really takes some effort to ferret out the facts about this author. (Gotta love the internet.) The whole book I couldn't help but shake the question, "Why am I reading fiction on Vietnam?" when there are so many quality non-fiction accounts of this war. You can never quite escape the nagging thought that O'Brien reluctantly went to war, and not only survived it, but was almost disappointed to find his personal experience not as shocking or life-changing as it could have (SHOULD have?) been. So he decides to focus on everything negative that might have happened, was purported to happen, or was rumored to have happened in this war. His true memoirs wouldn't sell many copies, so the obvious solution is to make up some fake ones.
Beyond this, the underlying -dare I say?- EVIL in this book is that you are being sold a political bag of goods here. This isn't just some kid's "what-if" memoirs, this is a fantasy based on a man with a real political axe to grind. And, from a perusal of recent reviews on this book, most of you useful idiots appear to be marching in lockstep to O'Brien's drum. I just wonder how many Bush-voters there are among you. (Or Reagan, or Goldwater for that matter).
Perhaps the most insulting aspect of this fairy-tale "memoir" is that O'Brien feels the need to continually bash the soldiers fighting in this war as COWARDS FOR GOING!! How is that for self-serving?!? And, I am not paraphrasing by the way, or misinterpretting; this is what O'Brien actually says, through his principal character, and a constant theme. Didn't notice this political chicanery? ...I would politely refer you back to my earlier statement on your qualification to read this review. Sorry if this offends, but if you don't think politically, don't you dare lecture to me about what a swell book is this, when you are don't even recognize (yet subconsciously swallow) the Kool-Aid handed to you. I would ask that you bleeding heart socialists and America-is-always-wrong crowd remember this sentiment of O'Brien's about being COWARDS FOR GOING the next time you spout off about how you are "for the troops but against the war." Liars all. What was it John Stuart Mill said about war being an ugly thing, but not the UGLIEST of things?
For a superb (ACTUAL) memoir of war that has an underlying anti-war tone, but without being insideously hooked by a pacifist lefty, do yourself a great favor and read "With the Old Breed" by E.B. Sledge.
Now... let the love-fest continue; sorry for the brief obnoxious interruption. Be sure to vote that this well-thought-out review wasn't helpful simply because you don't like my politics, and had the audacity to bash your beloved book. But if I saved one cautious fence-sitter from buying into the mindless tripe purveyed in this book, it was worth it.
Book Review: "The Things They Carried" Truly Carries the Heart of the Readers
Summary: 5 Stars
Tim O'Brien made "The Things They Carried" remarkably enjoyable by narrating powerful stories that embarked on the effects of war and its encounters. This is a novel of interconnected stories that is not part of one central plot. Each chapter describes the experiences of various soldiers and their emotional and mental side effects from the Vietnam War. The novel describes more than just the "things" the soldiers carried; it refers to the burden they carry inside after the war. The soldiers are never once left at peace after experiencing the fear, isolation, and dismay of war. The well structured anecdotes and well written imagery grasp readers through an unforgettable journey. "The Things They Carried" is a beautiful and impressive literature.
What's effective about this novel is the author's style in carrying out his stories in the form of re-telling his memory. The multiple events that are written in the novel are not specific in time or follow a timeline. It is composed of pieces of memories weaving into a novel. In the style of story-telling, O'Brien's anecdotes take the readers back and forth in time observing all the aspect that appears in ones mind as memories. Such as telling the story of a soldier who died, but then he tells another part of O'Brien's memory where the soldier was still alive. The stories do not necessarily follow up on the details after another story end, but to function as memories and telling how certain fear and death affects a soldier in the mist of war at different time. This style of memories does not contain the complete truth.
A major theme that is portrayed in this novel is the "truth" behind every story. One of the most enjoyable chapters to read was "How to Tell a True War Story." The chapter carries out the point to which the author tries to convey. The author's point is that a true war story does not have the complete truth nor does it have morals, but it tells what happens to the soldiers in certain perspective. There are certain truths, but often are tainted from perception and age and are elaborated to make the stories seem surreal. This idea sparks the thought of whether this work of fiction could hide some truth. Whether these memories were actual occurrences or invention of imagination stands on a thin line through O'Brien's stories. Although "The Things They Carried" is a work of fiction, the stories he tell captures the reader's mindset through its authenticity.
Its authenticity is through the stories that develop the character's mental and emotional condition. Each of the members of the platoon unit Alpha Company has a story, a past, and a future that is affected by the experience of the war. The things they carried during the war consisted of tangible objects that represented their position in the platoon and their hope for the future. Following the war, they carried nothing more but the troubling guilt and horrifying memories of fear and death. The things they carried are the consequences of the war for the rest of their lives. For characters such as Jimmy Cross, he carried with him notes which he imagined as "love notes" from his college crush to help him survive. But it was this thought that strayed his attention and caused a fellow soldier to die, thus this incident placed upon a guilt that continued to live on in Cross' mind. Another character is Tim O'Brien who carried the thoughts of murdering people on the battlefield. The imagery in the chapter "The Man I Killed" was horrifying and effective in showing the atrocious side of war. The physical attributes that the character O'Brien described of the victim he killed and the fantasies he created for the victim showed his guilt in killing a boy who was someone and could be someone of potentials. Ironically, in this chapter the author portrayed the beauty of life.
Whether it's hinting towards the beauty of life within the ugliness of war, the author does not fail to get the idea across that soldiers leave the war with burdens. After reading so many assigned books for my IB English class, I finally sat down to read a novel I enjoy reading. This novel is enjoyable for the author's use of anecdotes, style of re-creating memory, and the effects of imagery. The way the story is told is very unique and straightforward. I would recommend this novel to just about anyone.
--P. Tran
Book Review: Simply put--the book is brilliant
Summary: 5 Stars
It is an understatement to call The Things They Carried one of the best books about Vietnam, though it is certainly that. But it is also simply one of the best books written period and well-deserving of its many accolades. A collection of interrelated stories centered on the narrator's experience both during the war as a soldier and after the war as a writer who seemingly can't not write about the war, the book is searing in its emotions and brilliant in its style and structure.The narrator and author share the same name and in fact some of the same attributes if one bothers to look up the author. It is, however, as the narrator is at pains to say, a work of fiction. Some people may be bothered by the blurring of reality and fiction as it occurs in the work, but I found it emotionally and intellectually stimulating. Some may also be put off by the non-linear structure, as the book begins mid-war and veers back and forth in time all the way back to fifth grade (and yes there is a connection to the war stories), to O'brien's reception of the draft notice, to O'brien struggling with memories of the war and telling stories of the war 20 years later. By telling the story "out of order", O'brien forces the reader to make the connections themselves--they may be imagistic, thematic, or character-driven, but there are always connections. It also adds a bitter poignancy to be reading a story involving one of the men in the group whom you already know via an earlier story is not going to make it out of the war. The characters therefore don't simply act in the stories, sometimes they literally haunt them, enhancing the emotional impact.
Throughout O'brien interrupts the Vietnam story to give the "writing" story--How to Tell a True War Story for instance is part Vietnam-experience, part how-to manual, part recollection of a public reading. Good Form is an explanation of why the narrator chooses to blur the line between fiction and non-fiction and frustrated though one may be, it's hard not to see his point.
The book is rife with metaphor, symbol, simile, poetic language, use of syntax/punctuation to convey feeling and meaning-all the tricks of the stylistic trade turned to such brilliant use that they do not feel like tricks at all. There is little flash here, just a passionate desire to tell a story, to get the reader to above all else feel, and so O'brien empties his toolbox in a wildly succesful attempt to do just that.
Almost any collection of stories fall prey to the "uneven" curse, where the great stories are balanced by the bad, the good by the mediocre. While not all these stories are at the same level, it is hard to pick out a weak one. One might think "Spin" since it's merely a series of vignettes. But the language and the imagery and the depth of meaning in these seemingly too-brief paragraphs belie that first instinct. Maybe the opening title story which lacks the first-person narrator and is broadly general in comparison, but the accretion of detail, the power of the images and brief characterizations based on what each group member carries disallows that one.
So if you can't pick out a poor story, which are the great ones? It's difficult to choose. My personal favorites includes Speaking of Courage for its evocation through imagery and detail and invented dialogue of how the war never really ends for some. And then Notes would have to follow since it continues Norman's story. How To Tell A True War Story for its beautifully terrifying depiction of friendship formed and ended along with its meta-fiction discussion of the writing process. Spin for the spare layered beauty of its imagery. But my overall favorite would have to be the closing story which not only ties the book's images, actions, and themes together but also broadens it beyond the war; it breaks out of the Vietnam prison and is both heart-breaking and beautifully optimistic.
I have taught this work to high school students now for over ten years and every year it is the same. It is their favorite work. And several go out to buy their own copy to read on their own. When I read it aloud in class, it is dead silent--something anyone who has ever been in high school as a student or teacher knows is nearly unheard of. It would be difficult to find a book more rich, better crafted, more emotionally powerful than this one.
Book Review: "The Things They Carried" Truly Carries the Heart of the Readers
Summary: 5 Stars
Tim O'Brien made "The Things They Carried" remarkably enjoyable by narrating powerful stories that embarked on the effects of war and its encounters. This is a novel of interconnected stories that is not part of one central plot. Each chapter describes the experiences of various soldiers and their emotional and mental side effects from the Vietnam War. The novel describes more than just the "things" the soldiers carried; it refers to the burden they carry inside after the war. The soldiers are never once left at peace after experiencing the fear, isolation, and dismay of war. The well structured anecdotes and well written imagery grasp readers through an unforgettable journey. "The Things They Carried" is a beautiful and impressive literature.
What's effective about this novel is the author's style in carrying out his stories in the form of re-telling his memory. The multiple events that are written in the novel are not specific in time or follow a timeline. It is composed of pieces of memories weaving into a novel. In the style of story-telling, O'Brien's anecdotes take the readers back and forth in time observing all the aspect that appears in ones mind as memories. Such as telling the story of a soldier who died, but then he tells another part of O'Brien's memory where the soldier was still alive. The stories do not necessarily follow up on the details after another story end, but to function as memories and telling how certain fear and death affects a soldier in the mist of war at different time. This style of memories does not contain the complete truth.
A major theme that is portrayed in this novel is the "truth" behind every story. One of the most enjoyable chapters to read was "How to Tell a True War Story." The chapter carries out the point to which the author tries to convey. The author's point is that a true war story does not have the complete truth nor does it have morals, but it tells what happens to the soldiers in certain perspective. There are certain truths, but often are tainted from perception and age and are elaborated to make the stories seem surreal. This idea sparks the thought of whether this work of fiction could hide some truth. Whether these memories were actual occurrences or invention of imagination stands on a thin line through O'Brien's stories. Although "The Things They Carried" is a work of fiction, the stories he tell captures the reader's mindset through its authenticity.
Its authenticity is through the stories that develop the character's mental and emotional condition. Each of the members of the platoon unit Alpha Company has a story, a past, and a future that is affected by the experience of the war. The things they carried during the war consisted of tangible objects that represented their position in the platoon and their hope for the future. Following the war, they carried nothing more but the troubling guilt and horrifying memories of fear and death. The things they carried are the consequences of the war for the rest of their lives. For characters such as Jimmy Cross, he carried with him notes which he imagined as "love notes" from his college crush to help him survive. But it was this thought that strayed his attention and caused a fellow soldier to die, thus this incident placed upon a guilt that continued to live on in Cross' mind. Another character is Tim O'Brien who carried the thoughts of murdering people on the battlefield. The imagery in the chapter "The Man I Killed" was horrifying and effective in showing the atrocious side of war. The physical attributes that the character O'Brien described of the victim he killed and the fantasies he created for the victim showed his guilt in killing a boy who was someone and could be someone of potentials. Ironically, in this chapter the author portrayed the beauty of life.
Whether it's hinting towards the beauty of life within the ugliness of war, the author does not fail to get the idea across that soldiers leave the war with burdens. After reading so many assigned books for my IB English class, I finally sat down to read a novel I enjoy reading. This novel is enjoyable for the author's use of anecdotes, style of re-creating memory, and the effects of imagery. The way the story is told is very unique and straightforward. I would recommend this novel to just about anyone.