Sections of this book were assigned to me as coursework. What I read was so entertaining that I immediately purchased the book and had read and reread it within a weekend. I admit that I'd not have seen the depth of O'Brien's true literary genius had my professor not shed light on some of the subtle issues addressed herein (i.e. the retelling of The Lemon Tree story as a portrait of literary progression through history, etc.). Still, even without an appreciation of or interest in top quality literature, the interested reader will find great insight into character and plot development within this literary masterpeice.
Be warned though that this story is not a historical account of a soldier's horrific experience in Vietnam. Instead, the author's experience in Vietnam is used to illustrate the true purpose of the piece: how a story teller accurately transmits a message to the audience. To all of those who criticize this book as being poorly written because of its historical inaccuracies, I kindly paraphrase the author's own words: you obviously weren't listening.

i never even received what i ordered, which i had gotten from know hope auctions or something like that. i had to go to border's and buy it because i needed it for school. and the best part is i still got charged for it.

very disappointing.

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.

In The Things They Carried, Vietnam veteran Tim O'Brien called upon his own wartime experiences, labeled them as fiction, and wrote one of the most emotionally potent books I've ever read.

It's irrelevant to me how much of O'Brien's book "really happened" because O'Brien's words and stories in The Things They Carried deeply touched me. O'Brien wrote simply, but effectively. He tapped into real emotion and conveyed those emotions skillfully. With each and every short that made up a larger story with The Things They Carried, I could picture myself clear as day in those very same situations.

That's one benefit of calling this book fiction. Had O'Brien designated it nonfiction, I think each tale would have filtered through my knowledge this happened to O'Brien and registered as a "past event." But with it being called fiction, I could lose myself in the story and meld with it, become one with it, and see myself in it. It allowed me ownership that nonfiction does not.

While O'Brien offers authentic knowledge on weaponry, tactics, and all things associated with being a wartime soldier, he focuses more deeply upon the human element. The Things They Carried perfectly captures what it is to be human in times of chaos, fear, and horror. He doesn't glorify or lionize the characters in his stories. He treats them as "real" (and perhaps they were), and he offers only the emotional truth.

There are things in this book that chilled me to the bone. Not because it's overtly gory, but because O'Brien cuts to the core of our fragile lives. For instance, in one story a man dies after being sucked under mud during a mortar attack. But he doesn't write it from the dead man's perspective, he writes it first from the perspective of the man next to him, then from the perspective of the man pulling the body out of the mud the next day. Can you imagine? I assure you, you'll be able to imagine such a thing after reading The Things They Carried. And that's what makes this book so utterly effective. O'Brien forces you to put yourself in it, to experience it through his straightforward, transparent, and evocative words.

I honestly only read this book because Tim O'Brien was coming to a local university and I was invited to attend a private reception for him. I'd never heard of the man and had to ask a few friends for suggestions before one knew O'Brien's work and told me to read The Things They Carried. So expertly rendered were O'Brien's words and so powerful was the raw emotional honesty in his book that O'Brien has secured me as a life-long reader.

I strongly recommend you read The Things They Carried.

~Scott William Foley, author of Souls Triumphant

Tim O'Brien is one of the greatest writers alive today. I think that his prestige and legacy will only grow as the genius of his works find a wider audience.

The Things They Carried and Going After Cacciato make up the twin pillars of Vietnam literature. If you haven't read Going After Cacciato, please check it out.

The Things They Carried is as much a mediation on the nature of truth as it is a war story. The major themes of the novel are the ways stories shift meaning with continuous retelling, and the ways in which our own lives are at the mercy of memory. A haunting, moving masterpiece.

... is a quote from O'Brien's daughter, Kathleen, in the story "Field Trip." Kathleen had just turned 10, and O'Brien had taken her back to Vietnam, to show her where her dad had been. He was trying to convey what it was like to have been a soldier in that war. As the story is written, clearly he had not been very successful. Going back to the sadness and failure of Vietnam is so totally different from strolling along the high cliffs of Normandy, where purpose and success reigned.

"The Things They Carried" is widely recognized as the classic soldier's account of the Vietnam War. It now has 702 reviews on Amazon. What more can be said? Hopefully a number of things, including a few personal parallels. When the Second World War commenced, Norman Mailer, the author of that war's classic account, "The Naked and the Dead," asked himself one thing: From which theater of the war could he write a better book? He consciously chose the Pacific. You never get that sense of ambition from O'Brien's stories; rather you feel that he was haplessly swept along with the events, and his eclectic montage of images reflect the experiences he is still trying to understand.

O'Brien was a "grunt" in the ill-starred Americal Division, in Quang Ngai province, mostly in 1969. I was in the next province south, in Binh Dinh, at the end of 1968, as a medic in a tank unit. Like O'Brien I would stare at the hills to the west of the coastal plain, and dream of waking up one morning, and walking through them, away from the war, a fantasy that he turned into another moving book, "Going After Cacciato." O'Brien was certainly right in taking his daughter back to the `Nam, in the hopes of transmitting to the next generation our experiences. I did the same thing; my first of three trips back was in 1994. This is probably the same year O'Brien took Kathleen, since I saw his signature in the ledger at the memorial at My Lai. "Ill-starred" became the most common adjective for the Americal, due in part to the massacre of what was official determined as 504 civilians in this hamlet. This event was only revealed to the wider American public thanks to the courageous actions of a couple soldiers, Ron Ridenhour who wrote numerous American leaders, and Ronald Haeberle, whose photographs were published in Life magazine. Others in the military hierarchy, including Colin Powell, tried to cover up the massacre.

A few of O'Brien's stories did not resonate. I remain puzzled as to the significance of "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" which truly had to be a stoned-out fantasy. But most of the stories overwhelmingly hit resonance, including the suicide of Norman Bowker in "Notes," the hauntingly tragic portrait of a young Vietnamese school teacher in "The Man I Killed," and the philosophical underpinnings of "How to Tell a True War Story." O'Brien shifts in his story-telling, so that it is hard to tell what really happened, and what was imagined, and if there was a difference. Oh memory, speak truly.

It was only on my third trip back to Vietnam, in 1996, that I thought it was "safe" enough to take my wife and two children. At the time, my daughter was 12, my son 11, and I experienced some of the similar problems that O'Brien had in trying to convey what had happened in this now peaceful country. I insisted on climbing the hills surrounding the Mang Yang pass, site of ambushes for both French, and later American forces. Climbing in the heat, and through tough "elephant grass," my daughter turned around and said: "Dad, I think you are just a little bit crazy." Yes, the obsession.

Our post-war actions were not sufficient to stop a repeat of the same stupidities in Iraq, though I at least was successful in ensuring that my own children would not participate.

Perhaps O'Brien's most haunting story is the one which describes his mindset before he went to the Nam - "On the Rainy River." He concludes with: "... and then to Vietnam, where I was a soldier, and home again. I survived, but it is not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to the war."

This book is our own "All Quiet on the Western Front," deserves more than 5 stars, and should be read in every American school.

Not growing up during this era it was interesting to read the accounts... I found a great blog article on this book as well:

http://www.petermanseye.com/anthologies/perseverance/343-the-things-they-carried

Great read. Highly recommend the book.

Cheers.

The book was shipped early and it was in excellent condition. I woulld recommend a transaction and would purchase again from this supplier. I am a college student and I needed to review this book for a literature honors class. Thank you for your prompt and professional transaction.

I quite enjoyed this book but found it to be disappointing (perhaos my expectations were too high) It reads more like a series of good but not particularly memorable magazine articles than a really good 'solid' piece of writing.

Strangely, the section I found most affecting and memorable was nothing directly to do with his Vietnam experiences but was his recollection, at the end of the book, of his first love aged 9.

I found myself wishing I was reading an episodic set of tales about his childhood rather than of his good but not particularly engaging tales of the mess of the Vietnam War

Hey everyone! I just wanted to let you know there is a GREAT event coming up almost a week away in New York City. The American Place Theatre's Festival: Literature to Life is performing a theatrical adaptation of THE THINGS THEY CARRIED by Tim O'Brien on September 20th, 2008. Don't miss out on this wonderful opportunity to see this moving piece of literature come to life. Here's the information and can't wait to see you there!

The American Place Theatre's Fourth Annual Literature to Life Festival
Citizen and Censorship: Raise Your Civic Voice!
When: Saturday, September 20th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Where: The Scholastic Auditorium Landmark Soho Building
577 Broadway between Spring Street and Prince Street
Tickets: Single Show Pass $20, Single Day Pass $55, Full Festival Pass$100
To reserve tickets contact The American Place Theatre at
212-594-4482 x10 or for more information logon to
www.americanplacetheatre.org

Hey everyone! I just wanted to let you know there is a GREAT event coming up almost a week away in New York City. The American Place Theatre's Festival: Literature to Life is performing a theatrical adaptation of THE THINGS THEY CARRIED by Tim O'Brien on September 20th, 2008. Don't miss out on this wonderful opportunity to see this moving piece of literature come to life. Here's the information and can't wait to see you there!

The American Place Theatre's Fourth Annual Literature to Life Festival
Citizen and Censorship: Raise Your Civic Voice!
When: Saturday, September 20th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Where: The Scholastic Auditorium Landmark Soho Building
577 Broadway between Spring Street and Prince Street
Tickets: Single Show Pass $20, Single Day Pass $55, Full Festival Pass$100
To reserve tickets contact The American Place Theatre at
212-594-4482 x10 or for more information logon to
www.americanplacetheatre.org

This book was received very promptly and in excellent condition - I am very pleased with how quickly I received this - it was needed quickly to use at the start of English class for my daughter. I am very happy!!!

Linda St. Hilaire

Read this book over 10 years ago for high school. It was one of those that really made you think, put you in the state of mind and emotions of the character. A bit depressing - but within context of being a soldier in a war that you did not want to be in; it was pretty powerful. Best of all, there's no deep political, overly spiritual, or wildly insane interjections that one would see in other war or Vietnam books and movies - and no Oliver Stone-like crap. It is O'Brien's observations of his surroundings, his feelings, his recollections of the people around him, and his thoughts about the state of things without deep political or societal analysis. It makes the book a very enjoyable, there at the moment, transport to another world, type of read.

With nearly 700 reviews already, this book is not a touchstone for me alone. I'm a few years younger than Mr. O'Brien, am also from Minnesota, and participated in the last year of the draft. I remember sitting in a dormroom my freshman year with many other young men watching the draft lottery on TV. Three-hundred-and-sixty-six ping-pong balls bounced in a cage, one ball for every birthday of the year. The order they were removed was the order of the draft. At the ninth ball, someone groaned dejectedly. My birthday was two hundred and something--not likely to be called ever, let alone go to Vietnam.

I've explained this because when I first read "The Things They Carried," it was more out of an interest of how my life might have happened if my ball had come up number 9. Like O'Brien's character in the book, I would have not been brave enough not to go as asked. I would not have fled to Canada.

This book far surpassed my interest in the road not taken, one I'm glad I did not tread on. As a fiction writer, too, I've come to feel the many truths in this book that talk about what stories do for us. Fiction can reveal deeper truths than most autobiographies. We need stories, and sometimes I reread parts of this book when I need these particular short stories. One becomes part of every cell of this book. It's as if O'Brien created a warm bath and then opened his veins. While there's death in this book, it's all about life, our perceptions, and our needs.

This review is based on the audio version. First let me say, that I generally do not care for short stories, and I have also managed to avoid most books about war. Once I began listening to this book, I would find myself sitting in my car (after having reached my destination) just to hear a bit more. The reader was fabulous and the stories ...all of them....just had me wanting to hear more.

The Things They Carried is a collection of short stories filled with tension. The stories are based on the Vietnam War experience of the author and his buddies. The reader/listener is drawn into each story involving the men of Alpha Company. You feel a part of the bond they have for each other, and you feel their anger, their isolation, loneliness and their fears as you listen to the voices of the soldiers.

This should be required reading for high school students in my opinion.

Tim O'Brien took me to a place I could not have imagined. At long last I now have a bit of insight into why so many of my friends who fought in Viet Nam, have found it so difficult to talk about. Beautifully written. Heart wrenching, exquisite, humbling - each person who served, and came back with even a modicum of sanity is to be cherished by us all, not by just their families and loved ones.

"First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha . . . ." And I will always carry this book in my heart and mind. It is unforgettable.

I thought this book was good in both what happens physically to soldiers body and what happens mentally to soldiers body. a must read

This horrifying and gut-wrenching book makes one really think about war and all the terrors and nightmares that go along with it. So many young lives were ruined or ended as a result and we can never go back and change that. I know many people that served in Vietnam and their stories are powerful as well as haunting.

This book shook me to the core of my being. Highly recommended read.

There were a few insightfull stories in this tome. But, this book is written by a real liberal. In his eyes there is no winning. There is only digging one hole to be filled by digging another. Tim O'Brien is a wimp, part of the wussification of America. There is no black or white just ambiguity. This explains why this book is used so much by colleges and universities (liberal educators). In effect this book says "I am so smart that I can't actually kill the man that wants and WILL kill me. I can look though the enemy's eyes and I am the enemy." What a lot of drivel. When America and the rest of the Western World is taken over by Islam his descendents and mine will bow reverently toward Mecca.

This was such a good book!! My college professor was the editor which is honestly the only way I would have ever come across this because he had us read it for class. I loved it. It was so real and easy to get attached to the characters, as if you were reading about friends. Definitely worth trying out if you don't typically read something of this genre.

More than just a war novel, it's a study of the individual and of humanity. While the line between fiction and the author's experiences and that between fantasy and reality is often blurred, O'Brien's writing style is amazing.

That being said, the book still disappointed me with its total lack of subtlety and redundancy. I found myself skipping through entire paragraphs because I had read them before in previous stories, and I was irritated by the constant, exhuasted refrain, "I'm forty-three years old, and a writer now..."

O'Brien is very clear on the point that, with a true war story, morality and truth are not necessary. I appreciate this, and I give him credit for the fact that his book echoes his own definition of the Vietnam War itself - vague, ambivalent, undefined, and without clarity or consistency. This, I feel he does fairly effectively, but for the fact that he repeatedly reminds the reader that that is his purpose. However, the inconsistency of the book, and the seemingly haphazard arrangement of the stories, made it difficult to follow at times, and overall it felt very sloppily written and constructed.

Tim O'Brien's invokes in the reader a feeling of deeply understanding the war experiences of Vietnam War soldiers. His writing is amazing. This will stand the test of time.

My daughter and I recently traveled to Hanoi and I came home wanting to know more about the Viet Nam war experience, which was core to my college years (1964-1968). Tim O'Brien captures the bravado, sweetness, fear, friendship, cruelty and horror that permeated that experience for our young men serving there. This is a must read for those in my generation who are still trying to understand the meaning of that long and desperate war that tore our country apart.

O'Brien's narrative is crude and unpatriotic. It is, by his own admission, one-sided, which proves to be one of its most significant undoings. The stories in them are difficult to follow at best, and poorly written at their worst. Believing that the stories are actually about the Vietnam War is a misconception. In the cover it says "This is a work of FICTION." (A poor one, I might add.) The stories entailed in the book are completely unbelievable. It is a disgrace. It is a disgrace to Vietnam, America, and Veterans of Vietnam. O' Brien gives no consideration to the reasons that America entered into the war, nor does he give thought to the fact that the Vietnam War actually contained numerous small victories for Democracy. He fails to mention how many South Vietnamese were in fact members of the National Liberation Front (also known as the Viet Cong) and intent on killing Americans. He paints the Vietnamese as a peace loving, kind people, victimized by evil foreign American intruders. The symbolism and repetitiveness in The Things They Carried are poorly written and obvious to a smart 3 year old. Maybe that's why when the Sweethart of Song Tra Bong was made as a movie, it was a B-Movie. Also when Tim O'Brien described "The Man that I killed," Tim O' Brien talks about a Vietnamese that he "shot." He makes constant and repeated references to the description of the man. He describes him over five time. Five TIMES. What, are you getting paid by the page or something? Do you need the extra $? Who cares? The whole book is awful. Reading the Wikipedia page on the book is more enjoyable than reading the book. Also, in "How to tell a true war story," he describes that a "true war story" should in essence be exaggerated. So if I want to tell you about what happened in a war, truthfully, I should lie? Does that make any sense? All of the stories, and in fact, the entire book only focus on the smallest fraction of events in Vietnam. O'Brien admits that himself. O'Brien includes numerous contradictions in his story for the purpose of illustrating the incongruities inherent to the Vietnam War, these contradictions make for a very dry and unnecessarily lengthy read. Much of O'Brien's novel is, in fact, repetition and contradiction.

The Things They Carried seems more of a memoir than fiction, but I'll have to take Tim O'Brien's word for it. The book is used in college classrooms today, despite fading generational interest in Vietnam. Why? Because it's neither a polemic nor a glorification of the warrior's dilemmas within the fog of war. O'Brien lays details out there and you make of them what you will. That's the true test of a classic, and of a warrior's integrity. In my mind, this book is both - a warrior's classic.

Here is one of the most amazing books I've ever read. Reads like a tough memoir but also like excellent literary fiction, and shares many a profound insight about war, courage, human nature, truth, trust, friendship, and a hundred other deep topics.

What makes this all the more interesting is the variety of stories O'Brien tells, some read like Chekovian sketches, others like the best of Andre Dubus in a grittier setting. My favorite, How to Tell a True War Story, explores the ironies and absurdities of war in so many ways -- how war changes the combat soldier, how it creates deprivation and desire, how it is both unspeakably ugly and yet beautiful to behold at the same time. Only someone who has been there and experienced these things can write with the authority O'Brien displays here.

This should be required reading in high schools and colleges across the land. Ten stars!

My advice to anyone who loves great books -- read this book right now. it is quite simply everything i would want literature to be. this book has helped shaped for me what to expect from books.

a seamless combination of memoir & short stories, this book is o'brien's account of his experience in vietnam. it is told with such honesty and rawness that the emotion is sometimes overwhelming.

Honored by the Pulitzer Prize, the ultimate bestseller The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien tells us about O'Brien's true personal stories in Vietnam War. His realistic war stories often drive us to the Vietnam in 1960's. This "work of fiction" may seem as a collection of short stories, but these little pieces are wonderfully woven to sculpt this masterpiece. Even though the writer may not have stayed in the Tip Top Lodge or his friends might not have died through gory and painful moments, his heartbreaking way of telling war stories creates these remarkable stories.

O'Brien opens up the new chapter of the war stories as he recollects his memories. He mentions his friends' death and how they have influenced soldiers in the battlefield. One soldier's death seriously impacts first lieutenant, Jimmy Cross, who considers himself accountable for Ted's death. Jimmy's soldiers also realize how the death of their friend come to them, how they need to be alert about this new environment, and what they really care. The narrator also wanders between the margin of the exile and the war, and he finally makes his decision in favor of his conscience.

Since this is a "work of fiction," we know that stories in The Things They Carried may not be true. He might not have seen his friends dying. He might not have known his friends, Rat Kiley, Kiowa, and others. However, these stories still come close to our hearts because his true, touching descriptions of the scenes make us believe them. Also, his lessons on how to write the true stories make us even more to believe his stories as he takes us to Vietnam and makes us see what has happened in 1960's. As he narrates events that have happened around him, he finally binds them together, making a beautiful, heartbreaking fiction.

Tim O'Brien erases the invisible line between the truth and the fiction which shows his skillful way of writing. It seemed that he had undergone through painful experiences such as his friends' death and the loss of the lover, but as I read more, it was difficult to tell whether he actually saw these happening. Furthermore, the instructions on how to write the true story may be wrong since this book is still constrained as the fiction. However, they make us believe what he is telling us and also his examples that he has given. As we believe more of his examples, he finally blinds us to believe this whole book. This amazing trick connects his war stories to the profound meaning of our lives.

This book is limited in a sense that it can only be written from the view of another soldier. Therefore, the larger scale of the characters' development can't be seen. Readers can only know the superficial knowledge about most of the soldiers. O'Brien mostly describes things from his own view and thus obstructs readers from looking at different angles. O'Brien needs to balance between his view and other people's view of life.

The Things They Carried tells us the real true stories of the war in Vietnam, and questions to everyone: what do you live for? This general question does not only belong to soldiers in the battlefield but also belongs to people who are lost in the middle of the road, questioning about life. We do not realize what we want in our lives until we are in need of them. Do you live for your love? Do you live because you do not want to be embarrassed not to live? And he finally makes a general fact of life, "And it's not a movie and you aren't a hero and all you can do is whimper and wait" (211).

I read this book because it got some votes for the best work of American fiction of the past 25 years. It certainly belongs at the top of that list.

O'Brien's stories pack a devastating emotional punch. The opening story vividly paints a picture of the experience of men in war by focusing first on the physical things men carried with them, then the emotional baggage they brought to the conflict, and finally on the angst they leave with. The best story in the collection contrasts a veteran's circuits around his hometown Iowa lake with flashbacks to his experience of the muck in Vietnam. The inability of anyone to understand the veteran's experience and the vet's inability to adapt to civilian life are portrayed more vividly than any story I can recall. Also brilliant are the story of O'Brien's handwringing about how to respond to the draft and a fable about what happens to a hometown girl who visits the front.

What all these stories have in common is complete authenticity of emotion, the fundamental ability to tell a story, and a passion that is often rare in modern ficition.

O'Brien is a self-conscious writer, troubled by the legitimacy of writing fiction, by whether truth can be found in fiction, and by whether amalgamated made-up tales are truer than literal narratives. There is a bit of Dostoyevsky in his wrangling with this theme. He handles this theme well, and as the last story in the book shows, he finds that storytelling is all about coping and saving ourselves.

This is a beautiful book.

This book was an assignment for a college class. I expected nothing out of it but was quite surprised. Vietnam has tons of material already out there about it but somehow the way this book approaches the subject it seems fresh. It was extremely well written and while the much of the subject matter was quite deep it was still an easy read. If this shows up on your reading list for college or high school, don't despair. It reads quickly, will hold your attention and pretty much leaves all of its message right out in the open for you.

The Things They Carried allows the reader to relive O'Brien's experiences in the Vietnam War and learn the various lessons he teaches through them.

A collection of short stories about the experiences of his and his comrades in war, the novel is tied together by the same characters. At times, the stories are exciting, bizarre, sad, and funny. This blend makes the novel unique in its display of all the experiences he faced at war.

It is meaningful as it is a way for him to keep the memories of his deceased comrades alive through his stories. Taking the reader up close to the environment of the war, the novel gives a glimpse of the harsh experiences in war, especially having to be exposed to death often.

He also admits that he writes as a form of therapy for his regrets and scars from the Vietnam War. An interesting point he makes is that "true" war stories are not ones that are based solely on facts, but are ones that have the ability to move a person and impact their life.

An innovative mix of fiction, memoir and nonfiction, this novel gives it's readers a deeper understanding of war and the physical and mental burdens of soldiers. Anyone even slightly interested in war or the effects of it on a soldier or looking for an informative, yet entertaining, book will enjoy this novel.

As a very easy read that depicts the Vietnam War, The Things They Carried is a collection of events written as short stories combined together acting as one narrative. This novel is a combination of fiction and nonfiction with both the incorporation of real members of the Alpha Company, the company that O'Brien fought in, and some exaggerated details. In this haze of reality and imagination, the distinction between the two is difficult to tell, but it is what makes it interesting.

O'Brien begins the novel with a very enticing account of what each soldier brought with him to Vietnam; however, the main point O'Brien is expressing is the one thing that everyone carried that burdened them the most, guilt; guilt from killing, guilt from deaths that could have been prevented, and guilt from weakness and fear. Many aspects of this novel deal with death and the guilt from these deaths. Chapters are dedicated to Norman Bowker and the heavy guilt that he is burdened with when he unintentionally kills Kiowa and when he gives up and does not save him. Years after the war, Bowker commits suicide because he felt that there was nothing to live for after the war. The war consumed his life.

In one chapter, O'Brien discusses his emotions after he kills a Vietnamese man. He attempts to convey the guilt that he felt and the sorrow that dominated his mind. This subject stayed with him throughout the war and even with him years after the war. This guilt from murdering a man plagues him as depicted when he does not know how to respond to his daughter when she asks if he has ever killed anyone.

This novel is well written and thoroughly illustrates the war and its consequences and effects. It gives a soldiers perspective of the war and how it greatly influences their lives. It also contains O'Brien's reflections of the war and his actions. Overall, this is an amazing book that portrays the Vietnam War through little narratives.

O'Brien combines multiple short stories, each with its own plot to create the masterful The Things They Carried. Trying out a new take on war story telling, O'Brien tells a story and then immediately afterwards contradicts this story to create the ever present sense of uncertainty, constantly keeping the reader thinking and never allowing the story to come to a resolute conclusion. This constant feeling of uncertainty is essential to conveying the confusion and chaos which surrounded the soldiers of the controversial Vietnam War. This novel's ability to force upon the reader the feelings of the soldiers may cause confusion at first, but also is what sets this book apart from all other war stories.
Unexpected and engaging, O'Brien unceasingly changes the story on the reader, adding new details and subtracting others. Although this is confusing at first, the reader begins to expect these frequent changes in story, further conveying the exact uncertainty of the kids at war. By not tying the stories up nicely and leaving them open ended and unsure, O'Brien keeps the reader engaged and ever wondering what will happen to these soldiers, making the book a seemingly light read despite there being several thought provoking topics. This ability to capture the reader's attention and to place them into the environment of the people in the story is what makes The Things They Carried a great story, after all isn't a story supposed to be exactly that.

Most of us will never be in a war zone battlefield. For those who have, I salute you for your honorable duty. But for those who have not, all we have are instances of storytelling. Tim O' Brien skillfully weaves a web of these tales into one master collection, recounting realistic stores from the Vietnam War.

Depicting the physical burdens each soldier bears, O' Brien introduces the novel simply with their grunt work. But as the story progresses, all the tangible factors become insignificant compared to the heavy responsibility and knowledge of a comrade's death. The story integrates a cornucopia of emotions that each character struggles with to coincide with all the trauma and chaos.

Starting with Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, the author explains the leader's personal conflicts. Distracted by thoughts of his girl back at home, the commander blames himself for the death of Tad Lavender. Following that, Rat Kiley, the normally calm and cool medic, explodes in a fury of sentiments when his close friend Curt Lemon is blown to pieces by a booby trap. Yet another soldier, Norman Bowker suffers from post-traumatic stress, constantly visualizing the scene where he had failed to save his friend Kiowa from the muck of the s*** field.

The war stories are presented in a personal portrayal, revealing the intrinsic values and actions of many soldiers. Expressing the story in a narrative perspective, O' Brien reminisces in his novel about the gruesome, yet profound events of the underappreciated Vietnam War.

Set in the backdrop of the Vietnam War, The Things they Carried is a composite of stories narrated by Tim O'Brien. While the book comes across as a war novel, it is superior to others of this genre, as O'Brien's insights into the past also serve as lessons for his readers on life, love, friendship, and morals.
O'Brien himself is the perfect example of the clash between the ideals held by the proponents and opponents of the Vietnam War. He, on one hand, is a college graduate and represents the typical intellectual who resists the war, but reluctantly enters the war upon the draft. While he stands firmly against the war, he is a confused college graduate whose future is unknown, and blindly enters the war to avoid the embarrassment not to. In some way, entering the war geographically and mentally separates O'Brien from his unknown future, and offers him a time to discover who he really is. Because he withstands ideals from both sides however, he becomes conflicted throughout the war in his journey of self-discovery. This problem is perhaps best illustrated through one of the prevalent themes in the novel, that all unknowingly carry burdens of their own. In O'Brien's case, his burden comes from self-identity and insecurity - on the battlefield, he is just as confused as he is at home. It would not be until many years later when he finally makes a mental trip to revisit his past that he rediscovers the lessons he should have learnt.
While the stories contain in-depth moral lessons of their own, O'Brien's tendency to jump from the past to present, or vice versa, often confuses me in the reading of the book. Therefore, it might be easier for a reader to perceive the stories separately, instead of grouping them together as a whole. Overall, O'Brien's use of realism in these stories impresses me the most, as his careful attention to detail puts on a human face amidst the 10,000 day war.

Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried is a well-written account of Vietnam, albeit a repetitive and overly-extended one.

The overall plot is fragmented and skips between past and present, which can be effective when used sparingly. O'Brien's usage instead gives a sense of the author being lost and without direction. To be honest this work felt more like a disjointed set of short stories than one whole, and it was not surprising to see that many of them were actually first published as such in Esquire.

When I began reading this novel I was immediately intrigued by O'Brien's parallelism in his sentences, many of which begin with, "they carried." But by the tenth iteration it began to become a headache. Novelty does not sustain The Things They Carried for very long, and fairly soon there is only the deadpan tone to deal with. Understandably this is a war novel based on memoir, and it would be ludicrous to give the war too great of a dramatic flair, but this still does not excuse O'Brien's style--of the variety which seems to flow along without break, rarely ever placing conversation inside quotes, without any exclamations, continuing drearily along, good for short stories, but torturous for 246 page work. The author still seems to be caught in a reverie years after the events he describes, without having gained much insight in those years in-between besides that he was a coward for not running away to Canada.

The best part of this novel is the detail. His lists of the items which his platoon carried is intriguingly miscellaneous in otherwise bland scenarios. Many say that his stories are convincing, but men do not usually die by getting shot in the head while zipping up, and girls are not usually shipped to war zones or join the Green Berets.

Oftentimes as one reads a novel one's attachment to the story grows, so that when the end approaches the author can make allusions to details in the beginning, occasionally with a gut-wrenching effect. As I read this novel my interest in it peaked early and then became dimmer and dimmer as it continued. The last sentence is profound, but when I read it I felt less a sense of regret than a sense of relief that the monotonous journey was over. It should have remained a short story or vignette. O'Brien's daughter Kathleen makes the case when she comments on O'Brien's preoccupation: "And that's bad?"--"No. That's weird."

I happened to find this book in a pile of other books my mother had bought from a second hand store. I picked it up and started to read it, and I couldn't put it down. At the time, I was home on leave for 2 weeks from the Army. When I returned from leave, I would be deploying to Iraq. This book helped me realize, and eliminate some of the fears I had of going to war. Well, I'm in Iraq and have 4 more months to go. I plan to re-read this book when i get home and see how my experience relates to his. I highly encourage for anybody & everybody to pick up this book.

This is a devastating account of war, written beautifully and with humor and insight. Our book club was overwhelmed by this fictional account; it should be required reading for everyone.

Tim O'brien tells a good story, and mixes in fact--or the illusion of fact--and fiction skillfully. Still, sometimes the fiction just didn't work for me; most notably, when one of the soldier's girlfriends came and turned from cheerleader type to bush-soldier extraordinarie. I understand the methaphor/aim of this, but it seemed over the top. For a pitch-perfect wonderful, fact/memoir of Vietnam, I think IN PHAROH'S ARMY is a masterpiece. If you're not familiar with Tobias Wolff, you're in for a treat.

I'm not one for war books--especially books about Viet Nam. But I found that The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien was engrossing, touching and easily readable.

The first chapter in The Things They Carried deals with just that--the many things the soldiers in Viet Nam carried in their pockets and on their person. These items varied from personal items (photos, letters, nail clippers, candy, socks, etc.) to military equipment (helmets, rifles, radios, etc.). The majority of the book deals with the intangibles that they carried as well. "They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing--these were the intangibles."

O'Brien was headed for graduate school at Harvard when he received his draft notice in the summer of 1968. After a mini-breakdown, O'Brien reluctantly reported for duty for a war he didn't support and afraid of camping out, tents, dirt, mosquitoes, blood and authority. Yet once he became a soldier in Nam, he found it a defining event in his life and one that still haunts him today. O'Brien deals with the complexity of war and the conflicting emotions that war evokes. "War is hell, but that's not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love...in truth war is also beauty."

Viet Nam may be O'Brien's passion, yet it has also proven to be a gift. He has written a number of books about the war (both fiction and nonfiction), and he even won the National Book Award for Going After Cacciato. While not a fan of war books, I'm now a big fan of Tim O'Brien.

i ordered this book a month ago and it still has not come. i need it for my college class!!!!!

I was forced to read this book for class but I am certainly glad I did. The book gave first person insight on the personal aspects of the Vietnam War, not just the obvious blood and guts. Stories of women snuck in to the base, lost loves, and interaction with the natives all highlighted the other side of war, not just the trenches, although those aspects are illustrated as well. Fascinating read.

A book, a novel, a collection of stories and reflections and corrections about war, post-war, pre-war; writing about war and about writing about war. Meta war literature.
This sounds formalistic, but it never is. It grips you.
The biggest surprise for me here is that I never heard about Tim O'Brien and his Vietnam books until now. Or maybe, I did hear about them but I ignored or forgot them. The title 'If I Die in a Combat Zone' somehow does ring a bell. How did I encounter it now? My daughter, a senior and good in lit, wrote a paper about it. She got an A- and let me read it. First the paper and then the book. Well done, daughter.
Footnote: contrary to O'Brien who invents a daughter called Kathleen and has dialogues with her, I really have a daughter, but her name is not Kathleen. Kathleen is possibly the weakest invention of the book, maybe not in concept, but the actual dialogues are wrong. Maybe TOB should have practiced?
A word re my headlines: the Mary Anne story is awesome. And the Lemon Tree is one of the weirdest lines in the books, though my choice of song title is an anachronism. The book certainly refers to the older Lemon Tree song: very pretty...

This is a moving book. A beautiful metaphor for a title. "The things they carried" sums up what this is about - the hopes and fears these soldiers brought, and took away, from war.

Tim's style jumps - there are times when you feel like he is "writing like a novel writer", with the usual eloquence, well-thought out structure expected from a great work of fiction. The first part of the book is in this style and is great in it's own way.

However, there are times when you can feel like you are reading his private journal. You can sense that he is not writing for me or for you in that moment, but rather for himself - to remember, to just make sense of it all. In these parts, the writing is so raw and honest it is hard to imagine not being moved. His fears, the sense of hope, and finally the courage, become real. (Specifically the portion where he was contemplating escaping the draft.) Sometimes I felt like I was just reading my own journal because of his voice...those were the most powerful moments and for that alone, worth the whole book.

An amazing book that succeeds in portraying what it was like for the ones who were sent to Vietnam. The difficulty of the telling shows through as the story comes out in pieces that ultimately are woven together for an intense read. There are some gruesome scenes and brutal actions that you come to understand are just normal under the extreme circumstances of war. Fantastic storytelling that shares what these soldiers have to carry inside them.

This is a must-read book. The Things They Carried constantly forces the reader to question the nature of Truth. Is this real? Could this have possibly happened? Is he lying here? What IS real?
And... in the end... does it really matter?

This book also brings the reader closer to the war in Vietnam, which was a tough time and also, for many, a very confusing time in American History. This book does not, however, present the reader with a historical/political view of the war. No. It brings the reader face to face with the everyday soldier. It brings out some of the horrible realities of the war that future generations could have no clue about.
Finally, this book brings home the message that war is not "romantic." It's horrible. It's bloody. And, all too often there is no glory in war, no honor... IT JUST IS.

'The Things They Carried' is the 2007 selection for the Eden Prairie Reads initiative. I was a little hesitant at first, unsure of how well I'd enjoy a collection of Vietnam War stories. The book is less about gunfire and battles won or lost, and more of a peek inside the head of the men involved - doubt, terror, obsession, camaraderie, death, survival instinct, the psychological turmoil of going home, and ultimately, for some, closure.

Although considered a work of fiction, one gets the feeling that all of the stories have some basis in reality. In fact, several times the author refers to himself as being present in the stories. As a reader, I felt some frustrating in not being able to determine what was true.

or should I say this book read like Tim O'Brien's memoir "If I die in a combat zone" "The things they carried" is a fictional account of being in and out of the Vietnam War, it was worth the read..the two books overlap a lot!