Name: The Things They Carried
Rating: 4.123493975903615 (332 reviews)
ISBN: 9781432846947

Tim O'Brien

The men of Alpha Company battle the enemy (or maybe more the idea of the enemy), and occasionally each other. In their relationships we see their isolation and loneliness, their rage and fear. They miss their families, their girlfriends and buddies; they miss the lives they left back home. Yet they find sympathy and kindness for strangers (the old man who leads them unscathed through the mine field, the girl who grieves while she dances), and love for each other, because in Vietnam they are the only family they have.

The Things They Carried

Brilliant. The chapter titled: "How to Tell a True War Story" specifically connected with me. I stuck so many sticky notes on the book it's insane.

Audric Kan

IBDP HL English Book:

Brilliant. The chapter titled: "How to Tell a True War Story" specifically connected with me. I stuck so many sticky notes on the book it's insane.

One of the first questions people ask about The Things They Carried is this: Is it a novel, or a collection of short stories? The title page refers to the book simply as "a work of fiction," defying the conscientious reader's need to categorize this masterpiece. It is both: a collection of interrelated short pieces which ultimately reads with the dramatic force and tension of a novel. Yet each one of the twenty-two short pieces is written with such care, emotional content, and prosaic precision that it could stand on its own. The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and of course, the character Tim O'Brien who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. They battle the enemy (or maybe more the idea of the enemy), and occasionally each other. In their relationships we see their isolation and loneliness, their rage and fear. They miss their families, their girlfriends and buddies; they miss the lives they left back home. Yet they find sympathy and kindness for strangers (the old man who leads them unscathed through the mine field, the girl who grieves while she dances), and love for each other, because in Vietnam they are the only family they have. We hear the voices of the men and build images upon their dialogue. The way they tell stories about others, we hear them telling stories about themselves. With the creative verve of the greatest fiction and the intimacy of a searing autobiography, The Things They Carried is a testament to the men who risked their lives in America's most controversial war.It is also a mirror held up to the frailty of humanity. Ultimately The Things They Carried and its myriad protagonists call to order the courage, determination, and luck we all need to survive. In 1979, Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato -- a novel about the Vietnam War -- won the National Book Award. In this, his second work of fiction about Vietnam, O'Brien's unique artistic vision is again clearly demonstrated. Neither a novel nor a short story collection, it is an arc of fictional episodes, taking place in the childhoods of its characters, in the jungles of Vietnam and back home in America two decades later.

A Work of Fiction

dang this is so ahead of its time it’s crazy

Grace M

Heroic young men carry the emotional weight of their lives to war in Vietnam in a patchwork account of a modern journey into the heart of darkness

Read sections for class, ended up finishing whole thing. Great collection of stories. Fantastic display of craft.

Derek Graf

Tobias V. Langhoff

A collection of short stories about a company in the Vietnam war, which is weaved together to a concise narrative; a sombering story about war and the people who fight it. At times meta-fictional, the author acts as a sort of unreliable narrator who at various times contradicts himself, and points it out, between the different stories. The audiobook narration by Bryan Cranston was masterful.

Gracie Marsden

One of my new favorite books. Beautifully and painfully written, with contradictory truths that make sense despite their paradoxical nature. The book is unique in its ability to make you feel the pain and the burden of soldiers at war.

a work of fiction

The things they carried

we read like half of this, but I liked the bits we read

Dimitris Papastergiou

If you purchased this book, good, I did too, but you need to put that down and buy the audiobook, because you NEED to listen this book narrated by Bryan Cranston. It's so good. He's so good, you'll want every single book narrated by him afterwards.

Now that this is out of the way, this isn't a war book, this is a sad book. This is a before, now and after book, that's going to take you through the lives of people who will make you feel for them even though you will never understand what they went through.

It's not your typical war book, and it's not your typical fictional war book either. Simply because there are no heroes here and Tim O'Brien makes sure you get that, and along with Cranston's voice it becomes even more dramatic if that's possible. Great story!

Recommended!

The million copy bestseller that redefined the way the world saw war. One of the ten books - novels, memoirs and one very unusual biography - that make up our Matchbook Classics' series, a stunningly redesigned collection of some of the best loved titles on our backlist.

rumbledethumps

This was a really great book, one that deserves all the praise it has received. It is not just a book about Vietnam, or the US in the 60s. This is a book about storytelling, about the stories we tell ourselves, and about the stories we tell to others. Through our stories, we can survive trauma, we can create meaning, and we can remember the dead.

Trish

This book/memoir is everything you want in a collection of war stories. It touches upon all the sentiments and realities that I have always been curious about, but too embarrassed to ask. Tim O'Brien is a brilliant writer, there's no doubt about that. There's a wistfulness in his writing that reminds me of conversations with my Grandpa over hot tea on bright summer mornings. I'm just a child listening to the stories of a world, of a time I can't imagine, that I'm privileged enough to never have been a part of. This is a great book for the summer time. It's easy to put down and pick up. It is divided into several short stories, if you will, and each one is moving and emotional in its own way. War stories aren't usually my thing, but I may go out of my way to pick up another book by Tim O'Brien in the near future.

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Aaliyah Jenkins

rylee m

Rick Dobrowolski

I keep going back and forth on whether I liked this book or not. It caught my interest. But I wasn't sure which parts of the book and which not to, especially since the author laid everything out in the beginning as possibly being false. The book did well at jerking on your emotions and getting you thinking, so, if that's the kind of book you like, then go for it. Of course, I am used to and love the Shaara's historical fiction novels on the Civil War, and this book falls short of their level of writing and authenticity for sure.

Allison Garrett

Ok, so I started this book today because it is one of two required summer reading books for AP 11 English. I was not looking forward to it at all and I was geniunely surprised by how much I actually enjoyed it. I am not one for war stories, I don't like the action or the death or things blowing up, but the way that Tim O'Brien tells this story makes the characters come alive and give the reader a real inside into what it was like in Vietnam during the war.

Barry Hess

Bill Mazza

I feel like I'm one of the only people who didn't seem to enjoy this book. However, I will admit that I read this right after reading a World War I history that was excellent (A Storm in Flanders, detailing arguably the worst area to be in that war) so I found myself having a lot less empathy for the individuals in this book, frequently comparing what they were going through to what the soldiers in Flanders experienced. Not fair to Tim O'Brien, but I just found myself not caring throughout a lot of this. Not bad, not great. 

The Things They Carried

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