The Things They Carried
by Tim O'Brien
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.73 You Save: $11.22 (75%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Things They Carried
Book Review: stunning work
Summary: 5 Stars
I had high expectations for this book. The reviews are all good. Everyone who I know who's read this book has loved it and said it was great. The excerpts and stories from it I've read were great. The expectations were so high, I was afraid it would be another let down. But it wasn't. O'Brien's book is great (I've added it to my list of best books ever written). The Things They Carried is a series of related short stories that create a novel. They all concern Alpha Company, which is the fictional O'Brien's company in Viet Nam. (Just to take a moment to clarify here, this book is in the fiction section of book stores, and O'Brien calls it a work of fiction rather than a memoir. I don't know how autiobiographical the stories are, but until I hear Tim O'Brien say otherwise, I'm assuming it is a work of fiction) At times the stories narritive flow is in such a way that they could be chapters of a novel, and at other times the individual stories are outside one another (the final story of the collection 'The Lives of the Dead' has the narrator telling us, after the war, about something that happened to him when he was a child of nine year. It doesn't fit with the others action wise, but thematically it is a nice capstone to the collection). Overall these stories fit together nicely. Most are told in first person. A few in third. A few are first person, but O'Brien is listening to another member of Alpha Company telling him about an incident that happened when O'Brien wasn't around. The stories patch together in an interesting, original, and highly effective way. The book was a finalist for the Pulitzer (beat by Updike's Rabbit at Rest) and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and won France's Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger (Best Foreign Novel) and the Chicago Tribune's Heartland Prize (I can't believe it didn't win the Pulitzer or National Book Award). The stories appeared in Esquire, Playboy, GQ, 'The Things They Carried' appeared in the Best American Short Stories 1987, and two stories appeared in the Prize Stories, The O Henry Award anthologies: "Speaking of Courage: (1978) and "The Ghost Soldiers" (1982).
All of the stories were great, but in a collection of great stories, two stuck out as phenomenal stories. "The Things They Carried" is the opening selection, and introduces us to the characters, Viet Nam, and O'Brien's talented writing and the great voice he uses to pull you into his fiction. "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" is an almost surreal story of one a soldier who was able to smuggle his girlfriend into Viet Nam. It's a haunted story that shows how Viet Nam changed people. And it has a surprise and disturbing ending.
This is one of those truly great books, that only comes along once in a while. I've only read 30 or so books that I could place on par with this one (check out my 'Official Book Club' to see what else). This is a phenomenal piece of art.
Book Review: The Things They Carried
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Things They Carried" is a plethora of experiences that leaves the reader to truly grasp the nefariousness of war. Tim O'Brien's novel is a plane to take readers to places and feelings that they would normally not be capable of arriving at. Vietnam is not a place that many high school students get the opportunity to visit, nor is war an experience that many go through at this age. O'Brien corrects this privation by transporting readers into the lives of fictional soldiers like Rat Kiley or Curt Lemon, neither of which survive the horrors in Nam. Their fear becomes tangible; their fear becomes the readers fear, their fear becomes imbued with importance as O'Brien attempts to guide readers through his disapprobation of war. O'Brien writes with a profundity that can only come with personal experience, he wrote "The Things They Carried" as a memoir of his bellicose days and to promote his anti-war sentiment. The irony in the story lies, however, in that none of the characters are real, although certain parts of the story may be true, O'Brien expounds the soldiers' stories so that he can virtually control the reader's emotions. The soldiers' experiences and feelings are such that the reader can feel the gush of wind as a bullet narrowly misses or become lugubrious at the loss of a close friend like the soldiers do. The readers' journey leaves them in lassitude at the effort put forth in fighting the war alongside the soldiers.
Vietnam breathes, although some may doubt that this is possible, for the soldiers Vietnam is a living entity. What I find truly meaningful is the things the soldiers carried, not only did they have to carry their unit and their equipment they had to carry fear, love, and hope. Fear that is constantly ruminated upon only becomes heavier and O'Brien does an excellent job of expressing this feeling to the readers. He also shows the unfairness in war, the men do not want to be in Vietnam. They do not want to fight, they do not want to be so far away from home. And when the soldiers do fight as is expected of them, they come home, but life can never be the same after such an unmitigated experience as war. Men can be left vacuous after a war they did not fight of their own volition. Because the US did not win the war in Vietnam, the soldiers did not get the respect they deserved when they returned home because the general public blamed them for fighting the war, even though they did not want to fight it in the first place. But, as the saying goes, it's a rich man's war and a poor man's fight.
This book provides the impetus to make people realize the error of war, a "necessary cathartic" act that could possibly make this world a better place. I therefore can say with perfect perspicuity and aplomb that this book deserves five stars because it is a truly heart-wrenching and enlightening story.
Book Review: THE THING THEY CARRied
Summary: 3 Stars
ashley williams
8/23/05
5th
Put it on the web
Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" is a very good caption on the genre war fiction. It is in 1st person narrative. Tim O'Brien, the main character, tells the Book. He is a writer and a was veteran. He tells the events of the war in very detailed description. The story is over a 30 year period. characters often reflect directly on the activities of storytelling and writing.This being a war story, there are some truly disturbing, graphic, and violent scenes.It is revealed in "Love" that Cross's feelings for Martha, whom he dated once before leaving for Vietnam, were never reciprocated, and that even twenty years after the war, his guilt over Lavender's death remains.While he was working on a new novel entitled Going After Cacc-iato, O'Brien thought of Bowker's suggestion and began a chapter titled "Speaking of Courage." But, following Bowker's request, he did not use Bowker's name. He substituted his own hometown scenery for Bowyer's and he omitted the story of the sewage field and the rain and Kiowa's death in favor of his own protagonist's story. The writing was easy, and he published the piece as a separate short story. Later, O'Brien realized that the postwar piece had no place in Going After Cacciatore, a war novel, and that in order to be successful, the story would have to stand on its own in truth, no matter how much the prospect frightened O'Brien. When the story was anthologized a year later, O'Brien sent a copy to Booker, who was upset about the absence of Kiowa. Eight months later Booker hung himself. A decade later, O'Brien has revised the story and has come to terms with it-he says the central incident, about the night on the Song Tra Bong and the death of Kiowa, has been restored. However, he contends that he does not want to imply that Booker did not have a lapse of courage that was responsible for the death of Kiowa. The other men in the platoon carry personal effects and good luck charms. The also share the burdens of combat, distributing the necessary equipment and weapons among them. Henry Dobbins, for example, the biggest man in the group, carries the M-60 machine gun, which weighed 23 pounds. Troop of soldiers and there accounts during the Vietnam War and the things they had to carry around with them along with there guns for war they carried around personal things such as pictures of there girlfriends, bibles, letters, and other various things. Many of the people in this book do not survive. A lot of them die in the war for example a soldier named Kiawo dies because he drowns in a giant mud pit. Others return home and cannot cope with what they saw in the war and kill themselves once they get back home
Book Review: steve's review
Summary: 5 Stars
If you like books about war, especially on Vietnam you will like this book. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien gives you a very realistic incentive on what Vietnam was like. Tim O'Brien is a real Vietnam war veteran, he tells you about his whole experience in Vietnam.
If you read this book it's good to know something about guns and ammunition because is lists for pages and pages of the things they carried. Its about this one platoon and Tim O'Brien is the narrator in the story and the main character. He introduces all the other main characters in the book but there is also more charaters that you will meet later on in the book. The book shows how hard it was for the men, not just fighting but also to travel carrying heavy loads of guns, ammo, personal items, food, medical kits, ect.. Tim gets deeper into the meaning of the things they carried and that the heaviest thing these men carried were their emotions. Every one carried burdens which was their main weakness, and sharing this with each other helps these men to become closer to each other. Carrying the heavy loads of guns and accessories to stay alive, carrying emotions of love for ones at home and other emotions as well, carrying burdens, and also carrying their reputation and pride. Reading this book will change how you feel about war, and take it more serious.
I strongly suggest for everyone, if they ever came across this book, they should read it. Its not just a book for someone who likes war, if you just enjoy to read you will enjoy this book. I always thought of war as a cool thing, because when you're younger you don't understand much about these things. I thought was for only the most strongest, fearless, and courageous men. But after reading this book it has helped me take it more serious and realize that everyone has fear when it comes to war, no one wants to die and not die in war. Tim does a good job of using good details to describe everyone and I have a well mental vision of the setting every time something new happens. Its tends to be a slow moving book when he describes someone or the things they carry. There is action and what I like is that its not Hollywood and fictional action packed. Its just like the stories grandpa would tell you only with much more detail.
This book has a lot of surprises and unexpected deaths, and that shouldn't be too surprising because this is a true story and people always die in war. But again I recommend anyone who picks this book up to read it. I don't like to read at all, but this is a book that I would read more than once and not complain. This book is well informed and gives the reader good understanding of what the Vietnam war was like for the men who fought in it, and maybe if they saw a veteran of war they might treat them with more respect.
Book Review: Good read
Summary: 5 Stars
Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" is the best short story novel I have ever read. It brings a different sort of edge to war stories. It gives the reader something that you wouldn't expect. O'Brien took the horrible violence of the Vietnam War and turned it into a beautiful flower. O'Brien talks about what makes a "true" war story. He cavils to the argument that only the facts of a story matter. He makes the point that it doesn't matter whether or not the cold hard facts of a story are true, it matters whether or not the listener feels how the speaker felt at that time. Outlook of specific events change over years, change how you want them to change and exaggerate how you want them to. If some exaggeration is involved, it's only to get the full effect of the story. He tells several of these stories, some specific facts true, some not true, but all true to him. He talked about what it was like when he first was drafted to the war. What he did, things he never told anyone, and used imagery like a lyrical poet, and addressed the reader as "you" to really get his point across; really get us to feel how he felt that day he was in a canoe at the Canada border bawling his eyes out in front of a man who served as a pedagogue he knew for less than a week. He had been an aplomb college student whose future looked bright, and now he was drafted to the war.
O'Brien talks about the fear they have of the nefarious, ethereal Viet Cong, or "ghosts", and how different people would cope with the war. Some used tranquillizers to escape the reality, some made light of it by cracking jokes and making horrible situations droll. People would tell unmitigated stories; which would have the opposite effect of making the war opiate. The kind of bond given from being in the war makes a sort of affinity. At a young age he was amorous. He speaks of his nine year old love Linda, who he beguiled, and who was moribund at the time, without his knowledge. The effects of all these stories are powerful, and they leave me thinking about them plentiful. He uses stories as a way to keep the dead alive. It's similar to Kurt Vonnegut's "so it goes" theory. People will always be alive in stories. He talks about the man he killed. He uses descriptive text to really paint the picture of how he looked. I can still see him; his jaw in his throat, upper lip and teeth missing, star-shaped hole for an eye. Since I've read the description, right now I can still picture the man he was speaking of. It stuck with me. Overall I proudly give this book a review of five stars. Reading this story was never blasé. I believe that keeping them as a composition of short stories as opposed to a novel keep the reader interested and make the stories much more impacting to the reader.