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The Things They Carried

4.09 of 5 stars 4.09 · rating details · 78,011 ratings · 5,545 reviews

They carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated bibles, each other. And if they made it home alive, they carried unrelenting images of a nightmarish war that history is only beginning to absorb. Since its first publication, The Things They Carried has become an unparalleled Vietnam testament, a classic work of American literature, and...more

Paperback, 246 pages

Published December 29th 1998 by Broadway (first published January 1st 1990)

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Mar 08, 2011 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I first bought The Things They Carried at the Bruised Apple, a used bookstore and coffee shop in downtown Peekskill, New York, back in 1991 when I was fifteen years old. By the time I graduated from high school a few years later I'd read it so often that the pages, already brittle, were nearly worn through, entire sections underlined in pencil. Loaned out and lost to a college crush years ago, a dear friend bought me a replacement copy awhile back signed to me by Tim O'Brien himself. This new co...more

77 likes · like · see review

Dec 03, 2011 Amanda rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: EVERYONE

Recommended to Amanda by: Dr. Calloway

Shelves: kick-ass, vietnam

Awestruck may be the best way to describe how I felt upon reading this book the first time. So how did I feel upon reading it the second time? I just want to bow at Tim O'Brien's feet while muttering a Wayne's World style "I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy."

Using non-linear narrative and stringing together seemingly unrelated stories into one ultimately cohesive work, O'Brien achieves something that traditional narrative never could: his work reflects the emotional truth of what it was like to be...more

48 likes · like · see review

May 02, 2011 Cassy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Cassy by: Creative Writing Professor R. Liddell

Shelves: physical-own, 2010, fiction-general, non-fiction-biography, region-asia, short-stories, event-missed-author

I took a short story writing class for kicks a while back. On the first day, the professor recommended two books: Mystery and Manners by Flannery O’Connor and this book by Tim O’Brien. I promptly bought both. Then I set them aside to read something flashy.

I am glad I waited until after the class to read this one. Otherwise, I would have quit immediately and never written so much as a grocery list ever again. This book is genius. The story about the girl with a necklace of tongues blew my mind....more

44 likes · like · see review

Sep 03, 2011 Terri rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: modern-war, vietnam-war, american-military-and-foreign-polic

This is an extremely hard review for me to compile, because I am extremely conflicted on my impression of this book. And I think this reflects the very nature of the stories presented to us in The Things They Carried. They are conflicted, true, not true, true, not true. Happening truth, story truth. A maelstrom of fiction and non fiction that sometimes feels raw and poignant and sometimes feels exaggerated and fake.

I gave it 4 stars, and yet sometimes I think it was 3 stars, and then at other ti...more This is an extremely hard review for me to compile, because I am extremely conflicted on my impression of this book. And I think this reflects the very nature of the stories presented to us in The Things They Carried. They are conflicted, true, not true, true, not true. Happening truth, story truth. A maelstrom of fiction and non fiction that sometimes feels raw and poignant and sometimes feels exaggerated and fake.

I gave it 4 stars, and yet sometimes I think it was 3 stars, and then at other times I think was 5 stars. 4 stars, I beleive, is the line in the sand for me.

I feel the only way to review this book is to cut it into positives and negatives.
I trawled through a lot of the reviews here looking for others who felt like I did about the negatives of this book, but whilst there are ample 4 stars and a few less than, no-one tells me why they dropped that star. I will tell you why I dropped mine.
It comes down to fiction and non fiction. I do not like my lines blurred. In war fiction written by a vet I like to feel that it is fiction drawn on life experience. In my Non Fiction, I like to feel that what I am reading is the vets true emotions and experiences without exaggeration or lies.
This book bludgeons both my categories and gives me something that is not quite either. And I hate to say it, but sometimes amidst the authors heart felt truths lies the lurking ugliness of falseness. Of exaggeration and drama created purely because the author had not much of a story to tell.
I feel this book is one long feast of platitudes.

And yet it is also emotionally scarring and based enough on truth to get me where it hurts.
In 'the Nam', in the jungle, there was a platoon of young men. Some of them died, some of them did not. Tim O'Brien did not, and he has tried to do his best to heal and memorialise and I beleive that he has done that to effect.
There are plenty of positives to this book. The writing for one is brilliant at times, the stories for their part are wounding at times.
There is not a doubt in my mind that the combination of O'Brien's writing and his wounding stories will leave every reader in a different state of contemplation in the end. For me, this was a 4 star book, for you it will be a 5 star book, for the rare few it will be 3 or less.

The fact is though, that this book was/is a bestseller and when you look down the list of reviewers here on Goodreads there is one thing that you should notice. It does not matter what your race, your country, your sex or age, your likes or dislikes, your favourite genre of book, this novel has something for everyone and it is being read by all sorts. That, for the memory of our Vietnam Vets, is a very good thing indeed and that, is probably the biggest positive to come out of this book altogether.(less)

21 likes · like · see review

Apr 28, 2010 Elliot rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ap-language-2009-10

Due to my packed schedule, particularly towards the end of the school year, it has been a considerably long time since I've had the opportunity to so thoroughly drink in a book like this. The past month or so I've spent reading and rereading (and rereading, and rereading) The Things They Carried, living in its pages, watching every word, hearing every phrase in my head, exploring, searching for meaning and truth and lies in every corner...

I'm breathless as I'm typing this, actually. I just have...more

21 likes · like · see review

Mar 16, 2009 miaaa rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: erie a.k.a moto moto, cak nanto, jenderal james

Recommended to miaaa by: Windy Ariestanty

Shelves: favourites

The things they carried were largely determined by necessity
The things they carried were partly a function of rank, partly of field specialty
The things they carried varied by mission
The things they carried were determined to some extent by superstition
They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die in a war

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!

First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, joined the war because his mates did so. Had no military ambition, and preferred to value his men as human beings rather...more

4 likes · like · see review

Apr 14, 2009 Sandy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reading-group-picks, war-stories, autobi-memoirs, vietnam-se-asia

Powerful writing about being a soldier in Vietnam. I, personally, had a friend once who was a marine there when he was 19. He lost both legs above the knees when he stepped on a land mine. "The guy next to me died" he told me. "I killed him". He couldn't see it any other way... He stepped on the mine, his buddy died. No matter that he nearly died himself, lost his legs, his testicle, his soul, his life as a functional human being, his sense of selfworth, his ability to feel he could live in 'the...more

26 likes · like · see review

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Kelly Sandy-your comments are why I am going to purchase this book right after I type this. My father is a Vietnam Vet and the suffering he goes thru every...more
Sep 26, 2010 10:40am

Sandy Kelly wrote: "Sandy-your comments are why I am going to purchase this book right after I type this. My father is a Vietnam Vet and the suffering he go...more Kelly wrote: "Sandy-your comments are why I am going to purchase this book right after I type this. My father is a Vietnam Vet and the suffering he goes thru every day, to this day, allows me to identify with yo..."

Hey Kelly, I haven't been on this particular review page for ages so I only today read your remarks on The Things They Carry and the awful Vietnam legacy so many vets and others forever 'carry'.

I have great compassion for your dad and all the vets of then and now, yesterday and today. The 'glories' of Bush and Cheney's Iraq conquest, (preceded by too damn many such glorified campaigns), and the bullshit of righteous action we are fed everyday and sadly so many Americans still believe, is simply sinful. It makes me heart sick to reflect on those generally naive, often earnest young people who go off to war with stars in their eyes, - especially in this 'volunteer military' era - only to be struck in whatever ghastly way, by the severe and bitter realities.

Did you know that the campaign in Iraq was initially to be called 'Operation Iraqi Liberation', until it was realized what a heyday would be had with the acronym - O.I.L.? Most Americans still don't seem to get that that REALLY is what that campaign is all about - Profits for a few at the great expense of the many. And Afghanistan & Al-Queda... don't get me started!

I wish I could believe that Tommy eventually realized his actions and losses in Vietnam were in fact truly heroic... but I don't think he ever could. I lost touch with him after that winter in St. John's but, years later, durning my period in Florida, I think that I saw him pan-handling in his wheelchair in a crazy intersection in South Miami... but I was flying by in a car and by the time I got back he was gone... our American Heroes... left to struggle and die in obscurity... we are a nation without conscience.

Take care of your dad... he is lucky to have your compassion and caring. I know another like him locally... and I think often of how fortunate Bruce is to have a committed wife and loving family through these long years of PTSD he has suffered. Many vets, like Tommy, do not.(less)
Aug 11, 2011 07:59am

Nov 03, 2007 Phil rated it 2 of 5 stars

The writing is solid enough, but most of the time it feels like it's on rails..."I am about to use a metaphor...the metaphor is happening RIGHT NOW...this is what the metaphor meant..." There's a whole section where he rationalizes his inclusion of the previous section. Also, the book is billed as "fiction" but it certainly more seems like "Tim O'Brien dips into a relatively shallow well of war stories." One of the reviews in the front matter praises the fact that elements repeat themselves "as...more

15 likes · like · see review

Nov 25, 2011 Denae rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, recommended-by-a-friend, read-multiple-times, re-read-potential, re-read-in-2011, read-in-2011, challenge-1010-by-2020

Incredible. Parts of "How to Tell a True War Story" come to mind regularly. I love Tim O'Brien's writing. Those were the three things I had to say about The Things They Carried when I initially "reviewed" this book. I hold to all of those. This is my third reading and I found the book even better than it was eleven years ago. "How to Tell a True War Story" has probably influenced my views on writing and literature more than anything else I have ever read. There is a beautiful clarity and painful...more

5 likes · like · see review

Aug 12, 2011 Lucy M rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Honestly what can you say about a book that is not only so enticing that you miss your stop not once but five times (yeah that's right I sat on the bus and went round in loops) , but also so moving that you need to pull away just to gather yourself. After finishing this book, I feel that the author didn't want me to feel sorry for him or for any soldiers he talked about in the book. The soldiers that fought in Vietnam (on both sides) need to be remembered. The TRUTH about what they went through...more

8 likes · like · see review

Jan 23, 2013 Kathrina rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: oakdale-prison

My 11-year-old has gone from the Lightning Thief series, to Hunger Games, to this. I am so proud.

4 likes · like · see review

view all 4 comments

Kathrina This was an oakdale prison book club pick. We will be discussing it next week. I can't wait to hear the guys' discussion. Some are vets themselves, an...more
Jan 23, 2013 10:00am

Kathrina We had our book group discussion, and most of the guys felt a deep connection with this title. Two of them had read it before. Most of our discussion...more
Feb 10, 2013 06:53am

May 27, 2012 Melanie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favourites

More than a dozen glowing reviews are provided with the novel, none of them do the work justice, so hell if I’m going to achieve eloquence. Everything I want to say is changeable: the work is about the war, but really it’s a love story, the work is about the work - the art of storytelling, how to tell it, what to guess at, what to embellish so that the readers bleed with you, really get it.
The storytelling is, by the Authors own admission, fiction that will better explain truth than the actual...more

4 likes · like · see review

Sep 28, 2012 Liz rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: lovers of good writing and true stories

Recommended to Liz by: Meg & Kate

Shelves: nonfiction, favorites, own

Update: Just read Richard Rohr's definition of Myth in the introduction of his book "Falling Upward" and I think it accurately describes the stories in this book as truly mythical:
"Our myths are stories or images that are not always true in particular but entirely true in general. They are usually not historical fact, but invariably they are spiritual genius. They hold life and death, the explainable and the unexplainable together as one; they hold together the paradoxes that the rational mind...more

4 likes · like · see review

Aug 21, 2009 Idle Hippo marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: milter, nonfiksi

di pending bacana, bukuna ilang di tukangscanner, huhuhuhi

*melolong pilu menjelang imsak*

-----------------------------

ada kejadian "lucu" tentang buku ini.

06-06-09 jam 11 siang
seorang lelaki durjana datang menyodorkan buku ini

"buku apaan neh?"
"buku punya si mia, yang gue janjiin kmaren dulu itu"
*buka2 bukunya*
"oow, buku ini. lo udah tamat?"
"blom." *cengar cengir*
"dasar si raja skimming" *ngedumel dalam hati*

06-06-09 jam 4 sore
dalam rangka "blitzkrieg" di lapak buku bekas dewi sartika. beneran k...more

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Jul 29, 2008 booklady rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, 2008, autobiography, war, historical-fiction

Technically speaking, The Things They Carried is extremely well-written. O'Brien is a good, tight writer who knows how to weave a story. But even while I admire his style and technique, I am put off by the emptiness and moral vacuum he leaves when his machine guns and grenades finish ripping open your insides. While I wasn't looking for Sunday school platitudes from a book about Vietnam, I was looking for some reason, some sense which he could bring to bear after twenty years of writing and refl...more

13 likes · like · see review

Jul 01, 2008 Qiana rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: metafiction, books-i-teach

What I enjoy most about O'Brien's book is how delightfully difficult it is to classify. War stories? Memoir? Fiction? None of these is accurate or adequate enough. O'Brien steps in and out of the narrative, and his meditations on how stories are told and what power they contain are very moving when set against the realities of the Vietnam War. I can imagine a great conversation between O'Brien's "story-truth" and Morrison's "rememory" (from Beloved).

I never considered myself a fan of war stories...more

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Oct 16, 2007 Elise rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: please, everyone

The Things They Carried are an effing, ineffable, honest-as-hell, thoughtful, thought-provoking set of Vietnam war stories. Beautiful, bowel tearing, heinous and poignant. O'Brian is an artist. Simple. Complete with instructions, How To Tell A True War Story:

"In any war story, but especially a true one, it's difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen...The pictures get jumbled; you tend to miss a lot. And then afterward, when you go to tell about it, there is always that surr...more

4 likes · like · see review

May 29, 2007 Beth rated it 4 of 5 stars

I just finished reading this book with my 10th grade English students. It is always the class favorite, so I save it for the end of the year. I'm glad I have the occasion to reread it periodically--immersing myself in the details of a soldier's life seems like the least I can do these days.

But the real reason I love this book is because it is, at its heart, about storytelling, about why we tell stories and, in O'Brien's words, how "stories can save us." Parts of this book could be my English te...more

11 likes · like · see review

Jul 16, 2008 Craig Johnson rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: harpoonists

A fictionalized version of O'Brian's time in Vietnam, TTTC is a series of short stories that isn't about killing Charlie or "wondering who the real enemy is" or any of the usual Vietnam cliches, and it's not about the futility or the glory of war. It's about the mundane, it's about walking through a jungle with a huge backpack and your memories. It's about how you tell a true war story-whether it's to your buddies, to those on the homefront, or to yourself. Extremely readable. The first two page...more

6 likes · like · see review

Mar 08, 2009 Meliana rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: novel, meli-good-reads

banyak buku ditulis dan film dibuat dengan mengusung tema perang, terutama perang vietnam. mulai dari kisah pertempuran habis-habisan dengan darah berceceran tidak habis-habisnya, kisah cinta romantis, pengkhianatan, keputus-asaan sampai mimpi-mimpi yang terus menghantui.

tapi, tim o'brien menulis tentang perang yang lain..

para tentara yang dikirim ke medan perang tidak saja membawa ketakutan dan harapan mereka. mereka juga membawa senjata, amunisi, ransum, alat perawatan M-16, granat, air minum,...more

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Nov 28, 2012 Simon Hard rated it 4 of 5 stars

Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried revolves around the atrocities and horrors of a war that was one of America’s darkest hours. He recounts the war over numerous short stories that bring to light the characters and surroundings that made Vietnam home to all and the end to some. From Tim O’Brien’s recounts of the feeling of a childhood lost on the act of killing someone, to the treachery and distaste on an unwanted conflict, The Things They Carried portrays the Vietnam war in the pages of this...more

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Sep 13, 2007 Meri rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: dark-and-twisted

Tim O'Brien, a Vietnam vet, goes beyond the powerful war memoir by recounting not what happened to him, but what could have happened. Though horrific retellings are a dime a dozen, O'Brien transcends the emotional wreckage to approach universal concepts of truth and justice. If only we could all take the ugly bits of our history and produce something so beautiful.

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 23, 2010 Kristi S. rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you are looking for a book that’s real, then this is the one. The Things They Carried is an emotional memoir that really captivates the reader from the very first page. The sequence of interrelated short stories allows the reader to view the Vietnam War from different angles and through different voices. I found this approach in writing a book highly original, but also successful since each chapter reflects Tim’s passion and the haunting memories of the war. Although this book is a work of fi...more If you are looking for a book that’s real, then this is the one. The Things They Carried is an emotional memoir that really captivates the reader from the very first page. The sequence of interrelated short stories allows the reader to view the Vietnam War from different angles and through different voices. I found this approach in writing a book highly original, but also successful since each chapter reflects Tim’s passion and the haunting memories of the war. Although this book is a work of fiction, it can pass for a non-fiction book, as I initially thought it was. The writing is just so credible, and this is partly due to the fact that Tim O’Brien based the story off of his and his fellow soldiers’ real life experiences in the Vietnam War. By blending the facts with fiction, The Things They Carried is unlike other boring War stories. It is entertaining enough to keep the readers hooked, but also devastating and filled with real, searing, and unforgettable realities of the War.
The boundary between fact and fiction is not clear and extremely difficult to find while reading this book, but this ambiguity adds to the greatness of this piece. There are times in the book when Tim brusquely says “This is true,” and tells us his memory about the incident in Vietnam, like in the chapter, How to Tell a True War Story. The author’s name is Tim O’ Brien, and the protagonist who narrates in the book is also called Tim’ O Brien, who is almost the same man as the author but slightly different for the story to be interesting. Most of the characters that appear in the story are his real friends, and the incidents are mostly real. The details are exaggerated but it makes us imagine the truth of the war that never happened. Tim writes in page 71, “In any war story, but especially a true one, it’s difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen. What seems to happen becomes its own happening and has to be told that way.” Tim in this quote explains how telling a true war story is extremely difficult since all the images tend to get jumbled and you can’t separate the fact from the fiction.
By reading this book I felt like I got to see what really happened out in Vietnam, even though the book is fiction. The stunning imagery the author creates through his use of simple language is amazing, and each image flowed from one scene to the next like in the movies. I could actually imagine the sound of insects and gunshots while I read this book. I believe that Tim was able to connect the readers with the soldiers in the story by telling the truth of what the war meant to the soldiers and how they changed from it.
This book greatly focuses on the mental state of the soldiers in the Vietnam War, and how the psychological burdens the men carry during the war continue to define them even after the war. As the title The Things They Carried states, the soldiers all carry things that are literal and figurative. They carry all the necessities they need at war in their rucksack but also the heavy emotional loads, such as grief, guilt, love, fear and uncertainty. What each man carries reflects what they long for or what they must do. Tim carried his war stories even after the war and he shared them to us to come to terms with his experience and escape the terrible memories of war. Tim honestly explains on page 21 how the soldiers carried the fear of shame, and so many went to war. “They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to. They died so as not to die of embarrassment.” This quote shows the reality of the war and how the soldiers felt when they were at war. This book is filled with all the unseen aspects of war and the soldiers that fought in it. The book gives really good lessons to the readers too, about war. On page 68 it says, “A true war story is never moral.” By this Tim means that war is nothing good and only causes pain. The moral in this book is that there is no morality in war. War is arbitrary because it forces humans to experience extreme situations that have no obvious solutions.
The things they carried is a must read for anyone who want to indulge in a good war story that entertains you, but at the same time allows you to read a real book that depicts the soldiers in the War of Vietnam more vividly than any other non-fiction book can.
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7 likes · like · see review

Malyanah I totally agree with you when you said "It's not a boring war book, other than this one". Tim O'Brien really catches my eye when he writes this. I've...more
Jan 24, 2010 11:21pm

Mai Again, you've blown me away by your amazing review. I haven't had the opportunity to experience this book, but after reading your review, I want to re...more
Mar 07, 2010 05:59am

Risa I also agree with what you said that "The Things They Carried" is not a boring war book. I don't like to read and watch about war because it makes me...more
Mar 12, 2010 04:36am

Feb 07, 2013 Jensen H. rated it 4 of 5 stars

While reading The Things They Carried, I was shocked at how much I actually liked it. I have never been into war stories or anything, but this one for some reason really strikes my attention. I think it's because O'Brien does a fabulous job at creating images for his readers to picture. I also think it is because O'Brien actually went through these events that he writes about.

I have never been good at history, but I do know some things about the Vietnam war. O'Brien really portrays the war in h...more While reading The Things They Carried, I was shocked at how much I actually liked it. I have never been into war stories or anything, but this one for some reason really strikes my attention. I think it's because O'Brien does a fabulous job at creating images for his readers to picture. I also think it is because O'Brien actually went through these events that he writes about.

I have never been good at history, but I do know some things about the Vietnam war. O'Brien really portrays the war in his story and compares it to many objects throughout. The way he talks about the men right out of high school getting drafted into war and how women didn't enter war, so having Mary Anne Bell become interested in combat was frightening to most men.

The story of Mary Anne Bell was compelling. She was one tough girl who didn't let anyone get in her way of what she wanted to do. I felt like O'Brien captured her transformation perfectly. From being a girly girl right out of high school, then visiting her boyfriend in Vietman and started to have an interest in guns and combat, decided to cut her hair and wear no make up and ruined her relationship with her boyfriend. Then actually started to fight. It was just a crazy transformation that really took my interest. O'Brien's way of telling the story wasn't the greatest, but I still was glued to the book during that specific part.

I feel like Tim O'Brien as an author is interesting. Sometimes I get so confused in what he is writing, then sometimes I understand it perfectly. For example, reading The Man I Killed, I was left with so many questions but moving onto the next story Ambush, all of my questions were answered. I feel almost as if when O'Brien writes he is just was just as confused as the his readers so he has to clarify in the upcoming stories.

Overall I like the book and has opened my interest up in war stories. I'm glad we have been looking in depth in the story and working together as a class to understand what O'Brien is saying. If we wouldn't be doing that, I would probably be lost. (less)

1 like · like · see review

Dec 05, 2011 Jeremy added it

Shelves: american-fiction

The title story alone on this is worth the price of admission. O'brien gets right to the hearts of these soldiers with searing, earnest intensity. The way he moves between their desires and fears, between the physical objects that make up their kits and the memories of love and pain these objects trigger, is just phenomenal. And the rest of the stories follow along paths equally tinged by memories of war, memories of murder and friends dying, of collateral damage and haunted young American women...more

4 likes · like · see review

Feb 04, 2013 Libby rated it 4 of 5 stars

The book The Things They Carried is a great piece of writing that is based on a soldier's memories of the Vietnam War. There's many stories that Tim O'Brien shares throughout the book. He shares love stories, stories about death, stories about friendship, stories about heartbreak, and even stories about the mountains making music. This book didn't really help me understand the Vietnam War but it did explain to me what type of things or thoughts go through a soldier's mind/life during war. The fa...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 06, 2011 Inna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-in-english

The book leaves a mixed impression. On the one hand, Tim O’Brien wrote a good piece of war prose, and it seems to me that the stories “The Things They Carried”, “On the Rainy River” and “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” (this one somehow brings Joseph Conrad’s “The Heart of Darkness” to mind) are real masterpieces.

On the other hand, though it’s understandable that the legacy of the Vietnam war is a very painful issue for the American society on the whole as well as for the author, I can’t but k...more The book leaves a mixed impression. On the one hand, Tim O’Brien wrote a good piece of war prose, and it seems to me that the stories “The Things They Carried”, “On the Rainy River” and “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” (this one somehow brings Joseph Conrad’s “The Heart of Darkness” to mind) are real masterpieces.

On the other hand, though it’s understandable that the legacy of the Vietnam war is a very painful issue for the American society on the whole as well as for the author, I can’t but keep thinking that in spite of the messages of the sort of “the war is a bad thing”, “the war is inhuman”, “everyone fights his own war”, etc., the author willingly or unwillingly shows the dreadful hollowness of his characters.

It seems to me that most of the soldiers portrayed in this collection of stories are not dehumanized by the war: they had already been dehumanized before they went to Vietnam. Indeed, there’s a lot about inconveniences they suffered in Vietnam (as if wars were generally fought with soldiers spending nights in 5-star hotels and dining in chic restaurants with plenty of sweethearts about), there’s a lot about horrors of the war (the descriptions of the dead and mutilated), there’s a lot about how people turn into beasts, but there’s very little about their being discomfited by their mindless cruelty, by what they do to the Vietnamese, as if those people were objects, not human beings. Remember shaking hands with the dead old man (the scene is almost obscene in its emotional numbness), imitating the dancing girl who went insane after all her relatives had been killed, the "trick-or treating" that humiliated the old woman (and the soldiers see nothing wrong in it, they think it's FUN), etc. They also think it's FUN to torture the young buffalo. Sorry, but I, as a reader, cannot bring myself to sympathize with them.

On the whole, the chapter “The Man I Killed” is rather an exception from all the other stories in the book. It kind of clashes with all the other stories here. It seems to me that the author is the only character that tries to give the war a thought, to see some lessons to be learnt from the war. The author stands quite alone among his dumb and hollow mates. They don’t give a damn. They are just frightened, angry and peevish, and want to go back to where it’s safe and to where one can buy Coca-Cola any day of the week. I think that this is a major artistic drawback of the book.
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Michael I really have to disagree with this. For one, the soldiers were not dehumanized before the war. The American soldiers in Vietnam were drafted, were di...more
May 16, 2012 11:24pm

Jan 12, 2009 Paul rated it 2 of 5 stars

Here are two reviews of this book.

The stories of the author, a sergeant in Vietnam in 1968, are vivid and engaging. He combines visceral description, a tour of force for the senses, while utilizing incisive and highly inventive metaphors to bridge the gap between the war stories and the reader, presumably civilian. Listed in the first pages before title page, there are enough accolades vouching for its authenticity (the critics must have been Vietnam vets), leading one to think that this book ad...more Here are two reviews of this book.

The stories of the author, a sergeant in Vietnam in 1968, are vivid and engaging. He combines visceral description, a tour of force for the senses, while utilizing incisive and highly inventive metaphors to bridge the gap between the war stories and the reader, presumably civilian. Listed in the first pages before title page, there are enough accolades vouching for its authenticity (the critics must have been Vietnam vets), leading one to think that this book adds a unique understanding to the Vietnam War, and perhaps war in general. it doesn't just describe war, it sings the war, it makes love to war, it beats the war drum and blasts the bugle of battle into your ear.

I have always enjoyed books that related to disparate stories, one revealing a "hidden meaning" in the other. O' Brien writes about the love he left when he went to fight the war in 1968, and relates his timid "love from afar" to the fantasy of war that is so horrific that it is a dream-like and absorbing reality at once. At least on one occasion, in the midst of a mission, he was daydreaming of the love he left behind in the States, with devastating results.

Unfortunately, at least for me, I learned that the My Lai massacre was just one example of the sadistic acts committed by our troops. One story recounted the author's company soldiers burning an entire village for the enemy's sniper fire. On another occasion, they send in napalm to burn an area because they don't like the noise they hear. There was a story concerning a baby water buffalo that sickened me. When I got half way through the book, I decided to read the last chapter and quit. I'm too much of coward. When I registered with the selective service in 1974, I filed as a conscientious objector. Who knows what would have happened if the war had lasted into the mid-70's. The absurdity of fighting a war that seemed at the time doomed to fail for a dubious, at best, cause (supporting a corrupt dictatorship to fight the expansion of communism), was successfully driven home by this book. As the author says, war is hell, but that's not even the beginning of it. This book, as is the author's intent, takes one down into some of the lowest, most God forsaken levels of hell I had ever experienced. I don't recommend this book for those who are sensitive to atrocities and who already, like me, hate war. Maybe someone who believes that war can solve problems would benefit from reading this.
Some readers, although finding it hard to read, would appreciate the stark power of its impact.

I leave you with two reviews. This book, if nothing else, illustrates why nothing is simple, and everything is layered and can't be seen or described with just one approach or one way.
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Dollie I am sensitive to atrocities and I hate war. Books like this are why I am sensitive to atrocities and hate war. By all accounts, I was a pretty shy, g...more
Jan 18, 2009 10:27pm

Paul Points well taken. And you had warned me about the grizzly, twisted and confused tales of the war.

No question about it: those who can tolerate these...more
updated Jan 18, 2009 11:27pm

Mar 07, 2011 D'andre A. rated it 4 of 5 stars

After reading the book I realized that the stories were true but the reality was stretched. Tim O'Brien did a great job of depicting the Vietnam War and showing what it did to him and his comrades. The way Tim O'Brien writes amazes me because it is very complex and it makes one think. I was riveted by his descriptions and it drew me in almost as if I could see everything that happened. By the end of the book I was forced to think about the book as a whole. Tim O'Brien impressed his readers throu...more

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Dec 18, 2008 Terry rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is as much about what happens to you after Vietnam as it is about being in Vietnam. Without actually analyzing himself the author gives us a look into the boy-not quite a man soldiers that served in Vietnam. I particularly was moved by the chapter where he describes his almost flight to Canada to avoid the draft. I had a similar conflict when I was drafted and ultimately served for the same reason, I was too afraid of the consequences of not serving and facing what my parents and famil...more

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About Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien matriculated at Macalester College. Graduation in 1968 found him with a BA in political science and a draft notice.

O'Brien was against the war but reported for service and was sent to Vietnam with what has been called the "unlucky" Americal division due to its involvement in the My Lai massacre in 1968, an event which figures prominently in In the Lake of the Woods. He was assigned to...more

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If I Die in a Combat Zone: Box Me Up and Ship Me Home

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Quotes from The Things They Carried

“A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth.” — 274 people liked it

“A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue. As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil. ” — 201 people liked it

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