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Going After Cacciato

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 5,687 ratings · 383 reviews

"To call Going After Cacciato a novel about war is like calling Moby-Dick a novel about whales."

So wrote The New York Times of Tim O'Brien's now classic novel of Vietnam. Winner of the 1979 National Book Award, Going After Cacciato captures the peculiar mixture of horror and hallucination that marked this strangest of wars.

In a blend of reality and fantasy, this novel tell...more

Paperback, 336 pages

Published September 1st 1999 by Broadway/Crown Publishing Group (first published January 1978)

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May 29, 2012 Jeffrey Keeten rated it 5 of 5 stars

"You VC?" he demanded of a little girl with braids. "You dirty VC?" The girl smiled. "Shit, man," she said gently. "You shittin' me?"

I met Tim O'Brien briefly when he toured for In the Lake of the Woodsback in 1994. Along with his signature he wrote on my copy of the book the word "Peace". I thanked him for his service to his country and I can remembered he paused for a moment, just long enough for me to think I'd completely FUBARed the situation. Then he stood up and shook my hand looking me in...more

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May 02, 2009 trivialchemy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Let me tell you something about Tim O’Brien.

Tim O’Brien can write.

I don’t mean Tim O’Brien can express ideas well, or that Tim O’Brien knows how to make cogent points using the written language. Hell, I can do that. I can wake up hungover, drink a liter of coffee, and crank out an essay with a title like “Intertextuality in Victorian Memoir: the Solipsism of Affect,” or some such mumbo-jumbo, and it’ll make your average literature professor at The Community College of Seriously Misfortuned Acade...more

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Oct 15, 2008 Koeeoaddi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: best, vietnam, favorites

Paul Berlin goes to Vietnam and falls through a rabbit hole on a mission to bring back a member of his squad who's gone AWOL -- to Paris. Brilliant, hallucinatory and hypnotic, the narrative jumps around, jumbling continuity, reality, fear, duty and dreams as it deftly and completely messes with your head. Possibly the best novel about the war in Vietnam I've read, so far.

"He [Paul Berlin:] didn't know who was right, or what was right; he didn't know if it was a war of self-determination or self...more Paul Berlin goes to Vietnam and falls through a rabbit hole on a mission to bring back a member of his squad who's gone AWOL -- to Paris. Brilliant, hallucinatory and hypnotic, the narrative jumps around, jumbling continuity, reality, fear, duty and dreams as it deftly and completely messes with your head. Possibly the best novel about the war in Vietnam I've read, so far.

"He [Paul Berlin:] didn't know who was right, or what was right; he didn't know if it was a war of self-determination or self-destruction, outright aggression or national liberation; he didn't know which speeches to believe, which books, which politicians; he didn't know who really started the war, or why, or when, or with what motives; he didn't know if it mattered; he saw sense in both sides of the debate, but he did not know where truth lay; he didn't know if communist tyranny would prove worse in the long run than the tyrannies of Ky or Thieu or Khanh -- he simply didn't know. And who did? Who really did? Oh, he had read the newspapers and magazines. He wasn't stupid. He wasn't uninformed. He just didn't know if the war was right or wrong or somewhere in the murky middle. And who did? Who really knew? So he went to the war for reasons beyond knowledge. Because he believed in law, and law told him to go. Because it was a democracy, after all, and because LBJ and others had rightful claim to their offices. He went to the war because it was expected. Because not to go was to risk censure, and to bring embarrassment on his father and his town. Because, not knowing, he saw no reason to distrust those with more experience. Because he loved his country and, more than that, because he trusted it. Yes, he did. Oh, he would rather have fought with his father in France, knowing certain things certainly, but he couldn't choose his war, nobody could. Was this so banal? Was this so unprofound and stupid? He would look the little girl with gold earrings straight in the eye. He would tell her these things. He would ask her to see the matter his way. What would she have done? What would anyone have done, not knowing?"(less)

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May 03, 2013 John added it Recommends it for: People who enjoyed the novel, Catch-22.

Recommended to John by: Joe

"To call Going After Cacciato a novel about war is like calling Moby-Dick a novel about whales," - New York Times.
I have a hard time reading some war stories or watching most war movies and not walkin around feeling angry for the next few days afterward. There are a couple exceptions. Terrence Malick's, The Thin Red Line. And Tim O'Brien's stories. War stories that are about death and life, sure, and also about falling in love and fucking and relationships and the people that came before you a...more "To call Going After Cacciato a novel about war is like calling Moby-Dick a novel about whales," - New York Times.
I have a hard time reading some war stories or watching most war movies and not walkin around feeling angry for the next few days afterward. There are a couple exceptions. Terrence Malick's, The Thin Red Line. And Tim O'Brien's stories. War stories that are about death and life, sure, and also about falling in love and fucking and relationships and the people that came before you and the people that will come after you and things that we are ashamed of and things that are vulgar and things that you understand spiritually....

Here's an excerpt from one of my favorite pages so far. It's 1968, the thick of the U.S.-Vietnam Conflict. The protagonist (PFC Paul Berlin) & a group of new recruits have just arrived in Vietnam to begin their tour of duty:

"In the morning the fifty new men were marched to a wooden set of bleachers facing the sea. A small, sad-faced corporal in a black cadre helmet waited until they settled down, looking at the recruits as if searching for a lost friend in a crowd. Then the corporal sat down in the sand. He turned away and gazed out to sea. He did not speak. Time passed slowly, ten minutes, twenty, but still the sad-faced corporal did not turn or nod or speak. He simply gazed out at the blue sea. Everything was clean. The sea was clean, and the sand and the wind.
They sat in the bleachers for a full hour.
Then at last the corporal sighed and stood up. He checked his wristwatch. And again he searched the rows of new faces.
'All right,' he said softly. 'That completes your first lecture on how to survive this shit. I hope you paid attention.'

During the days they simulated search and destroy missions in a friendly little village just outside [Chu Lai].... PFC Paul Berlin, who wanted to live, took the exercises seriously.
'You VC?' he demanded of a little girl with braids. 'You dirty VC?'
The girl smiled. 'Shit, man,' she said gently. 'You shittin me?'"

Winner of the National Book Award, 1979.
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Dec 17, 2012 Jason added it

Shelves: read-2009

This is a tough book to give five stars to. Not because it isn't worthy, but because it is bound to be misleading. Going after Cacciato begins innocently enough. We meet Paul Berlin, a private in Vietnam and we meet his squadmates and we begin to see the struggles and the triumphs of these men. Then Cacciato, a happy idiot along the lines of Chancy the gardener (from the film Being There) who decides he's had enough and he's going to walk the 8,600 miles to France. Thus begins the chase and thus...more

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May 24, 2007 Mike rated it 1 of 5 stars

After reading, The Things They Carried, I immediately ran down to the library to check out O’Brien’s earlier writing, Going After Cacciato. And maybe my expectations were too high, but I was very disappointed in this writing. The Things They Carried was written in such a sophisticated manner. Going After Cacciato seemed jagged and forced. I really can’t see what was so special about this book that it was nominated for a bunch of rewards. I can only guess that there was a severe shortage of novel...more

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Jan 24, 2008 Andrew rated it 2 of 5 stars

Similar in approach to The Things They Carried, but not nearly as successful, largely because in trying to get around the problem of how to write a war story about a war as metaphysically unhinged as Vietnam, O'Brien settles here on the weary kelson of the hallucinogenic, it-was-all-a-dream plot that, by its very architectonics, evacuates all the drama from the drama and leaves behind little but the words themselves. For a writer like Pynchon, or Joyce, this might succeed. But O'Brien's success...more

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Feb 23, 2013 Helen rated it 5 of 5 stars

First things first. If you want to read a book about the war in Viet Nam, only one, make it this one.

It's 1969, and Cacciato, a soldier in the US Army, has had enough. He deserts, leaving clues for the other men in his unit indicating that he's decided to walk to Paris. Now they're obligated to go after him, to follow him until he's captured. And if that happens to take them to Paris, that's fine with them.

It's 1969, and Paul Berlin is a Private First Class in the Viet Nam War. On guard duty at...more First things first. If you want to read a book about the war in Viet Nam, only one, make it this one.

It's 1969, and Cacciato, a soldier in the US Army, has had enough. He deserts, leaving clues for the other men in his unit indicating that he's decided to walk to Paris. Now they're obligated to go after him, to follow him until he's captured. And if that happens to take them to Paris, that's fine with them.

It's 1969, and Paul Berlin is a Private First Class in the Viet Nam War. On guard duty at the top of a tower, he watches the sea, reviews his experiences so far, and tries to run away inside his head, far far away, from all the terrible things he's seen and done. To find the good mixed in with all the bad, as his father suggested.

I read about World War II all the time. There were two sides. One was good and one was evil. The good guys knew what they were fighting for. The bad guys…well, the very best one can say about them is that they were led by bad men. It is a war that is easy to understand, to appreciate. And when soldiers died, they died in the service of something greater than themselves, a mission to save humanity from unspeakable madness.

But the Viet Nam War was something else. Going After Cacciato is an anti-war novel in the pattern of All Quiet On the Western Front. By the time you come to the end of this hauntingly beautiful, evocative novel, Tim O’Brien will illuminate for you exactly what was wrong with this war, and how different it was from the ones we had fought before.

I am left with a kaleidoscope of sensory overload. The feel of high, unmoving green grass brushing against my legs, the fetid smell of the rice paddies. The fatigue from the endless march, the red dust of the dirt path on my boots, the mercury color of the sky and sea, the awful knowledge of the terrible ways a man can die. The unreadable expressions on the faces of the people we are there to help. The alien landscape, littered with enemy corpses, pitted and charred after the US Army firebombs it. The sound a personnel mine makes when a man walks over it. The pervasive gnawing of fear. (less)

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Nov 04, 2007 Sophia rated it 4 of 5 stars

The subjective nature of life and reality has driven people to seek objective counsel in religion, astrology, spirituality, or any other source that claims some kind of sturdiness in a world of uncertainty. Theodor Adorno, a twentieth century philosopher, suggests that literature shouldn’t play to this weakness of the mind for “completeness and continuity” which follows an “epistemological impulse”. Getting at truth means exposing different angles, even if they contradict. “Reality is fragmentar...more The subjective nature of life and reality has driven people to seek objective counsel in religion, astrology, spirituality, or any other source that claims some kind of sturdiness in a world of uncertainty. Theodor Adorno, a twentieth century philosopher, suggests that literature shouldn’t play to this weakness of the mind for “completeness and continuity” which follows an “epistemological impulse”. Getting at truth means exposing different angles, even if they contradict. “Reality is fragmentary”, to present one answer is a misrepresentation. Multiple perspectives are what fuel thought, so that ultimately the written word doesn’t act as though it’s figured itself out.

Nothing can be truer of Tim O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato, in which the main character Paul Berlin finds himself on a constant quest for answers in a reality of contradictions and subjectivity. O’Brien brilliantly portrays Berlin’s story of Vietnam through fragments and an array of possibilities that cleverly leaves the reader’s mind open to many avenues of understanding and interpretation.

The Book is divided into three prominent parallels. The present time, memories of the war, and the tale of chasing Cacciato, which takes place in Paul Berlin’s imagination. All of these are interspersed within the novel. While the present and his imaginary tale are recited chronologically, the actual war events get mangled out of a distinct timeline.

O’Brien also poses an array of questions: can a soldier escape war through imagination? Does war have it’s own identity separate from individual war stories? Are we to be against this war? Is there a purpose? And so on.
These questions are never directly answered. In fact, the novel is presented with dueling perspectives and contradictions, none of which seem to receive any precedence or emphasis. Perhaps O’Brien himself doesn’t claim to know, and perhaps he implicitly asks us to take on Adorno’s philosophy: to reflect on its complexity, and accept this very quality as a characteristic of war’s reality: That there’s a storm of questions, but no one right answer to shelter us. The truth is a synthesis of contradictions and perspectives.

In many ways this portrayal of war offers a tension between Apollonian Tendencies (notions of identity and individuality) and Barbarian Dionysian (de-individuation and the complete loss of oneself) as displayed in classical Greek Tragedies. Though they are opposite tendencies, they can exist simultaneously, especially in war. There exist the individuals, who differ in perception and personality, but are thrown into a situation that causes de-individuation, anonymity, and often “mob brutality”. Paul Berlin relates how at times it was easier to use people’s symbolic names, or just remember them in songs, for de-individuating them mollifies the burden of their grotesque death.

This is the reality of war to O’Brien, and reality as an object to Adorno. It has it’s own “inner coherence” and “harmony” that is only misconstrued by attempting to undermine it’s complex nature via “an overarching concept”. At the close of the novel the reader is not meant to have any presumptuous solutions, but rather bask in the limbo of its humility, so that through some miracle of fiction, the author manages to inject in the reader a vague dose of the haunting confusion, and psychological labyrinth that only a soldier knows.

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Mar 25, 2013 Ensiform rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, war

A Catch-22 for the Vietnam War, a hallucinatory dream sequence of a novel, alternating between horror in the muck of the rice paddies and jungles and black comedy. It's very well written, and the scenes are stitched together evenly despite ranging from blunt street-talking realism to elaborate flights of fantasy. In the course of its dream-plot (chasing the deserter, who decides to walk from Vietnam to Paris), the book takes on philosophical issues such as whether Vietnam was morally different f...more

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Aug 27, 2009 The Chaotic Reader rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: military-fiction

The Things They Carried is still O'Brien's best, in my opinion, but Going After Cacciato is not far behind. The ease with which he elicits emotions and the deftness with which he changes them is amazing. When he describes a chopper ride into a hot LZ you can almost see, hear, and smell the experience. He can make painful passages (like Chapter 44) such an essential part of the story that you welcome the pain. Best of all is his ability to surprise you time after time with subtle twists and turns...more

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Mar 21, 2013 Stephen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Today, 3.21.13 I was driving in the car w/ VPR on listening to Here and Now. The host was interviewing Kevin Powers, author of "The Yellow Birds" who will be receiving the Hemingway/PEN Award for the book, best new Fiction. During the interview other books written about war were discusses and for some reason I was taken back to traveling around Europe the summer after college graduation. In downtime or Eurailpass-ing the continent I read "Going After Cacciato." I finished it somewhere in Italy a...more

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Mar 13, 2013 Eric rated it 4 of 5 stars

Going After Cacciato
Going After Cacciato, by Tim O’Brien, is one his various realistic fiction novels about Vietnam. O’Brien is also the author of the award winning novel, The Things They Carried, which is what originally caught my interest in this one. I don’t usually read war stories, but when it came time to choose a novel for class, I came across different books by O’Brien, and chose this one immediately. Like many books the, description of the plot is what initially drew me in. Right off th...more Going After Cacciato
Going After Cacciato, by Tim O’Brien, is one his various realistic fiction novels about Vietnam. O’Brien is also the author of the award winning novel, The Things They Carried, which is what originally caught my interest in this one. I don’t usually read war stories, but when it came time to choose a novel for class, I came across different books by O’Brien, and chose this one immediately. Like many books the, description of the plot is what initially drew me in. Right off the bat, I was immersed in what was going on, and after the first few pages, knew that this group of soldiers was in for a challenge.
After a soldier, Cacciato, deserts his team to travel to Paris, it is up to them to follow him through the dense and treacherous country of Vietnam and Asia. The squad must leave their duties in the war and chase after a man with a perceived blind ambition and an unknown purpose. As they travel, they face dangers of the jungles and the enemies within, not even sure what they’re fighting for. Some lose a sense of what is right and what is wrong, while others keep their heads on straight and know what has to be done. Not only is it a story of war and friendship, but also one of being true to oneself. This novel also compares to the one that got me interested, which was about his experiences in Vietnam as well. Like Going After Cacciato, it contains vivid details that kept me wanting to read more.
O’Brien provides detailed descriptions, deep thoughts of the characters, and even how we can relate to their feelings. This was important for me, because I like to be able to visualize surroundings and events, and also to feel closer to the character. Different emotions—fear, horror, wanting, and happiness were felt by me through detailed descriptions and thoughts. However detailed it is, it seemed at times to have “fast happenings” so to speak. I felt like my mind was in one place, when all of a sudden, something else unexpected happens without my full understanding. Another reason this happens is there are frequent flashbacks, and sometimes it is hard to tell when they occur. A few times I’d be several paragraphs into the section and I would realize what is being described is part of the past. This may just be a personal thing, sometimes I’m not fully “with” whatever I happen to be reading. Despite this, Going After Cacciato is a compelling read and I would recommend it. If you enjoyed The Things They Carried, also by Tim O’Brien, and haven’t read any of his other works, I would suggest starting with this.
-Eric(less)

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Aug 29, 2012 Everyday eBook rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Everyday by: Andrew Agudo

Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato seems to be a bit of everything -- war reportage, Western, adventure, psychological thriller, picaresque, fantasy, and magical realism -- all rolled into one book. So, how can this be? What can support all these genres? The answer: a plea for a reprieve, an impossible wish, in the form of one soldier's mystical dream of escape.

Like many young soldiers in Vietnam, Paul Berlin is afraid. During his first six months in the country, he witnesses tragedy upon traged...more Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato seems to be a bit of everything -- war reportage, Western, adventure, psychological thriller, picaresque, fantasy, and magical realism -- all rolled into one book. So, how can this be? What can support all these genres? The answer: a plea for a reprieve, an impossible wish, in the form of one soldier's mystical dream of escape.

Like many young soldiers in Vietnam, Paul Berlin is afraid. During his first six months in the country, he witnesses tragedy upon tragedy: Billy Boy Watkins is literally scared to death; Pederson is accidentally killed in the paddies; Buff is shot in the face searching a tunnel and Bernie Lynn is shot retrieving him; Lieutenant Sidney Martin, in another tunnel, is blown up by his own men. Still, what most haunts Paul Berlin is not necessarily death, but rather his questionable courage, his "knowing he will not fight well." So he copes however he can. He counts things, catalogs details, remembers camping with his father and dancing with Louise Wiertsma. But his best asset in coping is none other than his own imagination and its muse -- Cacciato.

Cacciato is a nondescript, somewhat oblivious soldier. When he deserts the squad to walk 8,600 miles to Paris, his squad chases him over mountains and jungle, before abandoning the mission, and turning back to the war. But later, having reached a post on the shore of the China Sea, Paul Berlin asks himself a simple question: What if they hadn't turned back? What would have happened? And so we're led on a fantastic journey, an altered, imagined world, where the squad refuses to turn back without Cacciato, where they continue the chase -- through Laos, Burma, and Afghanistan; through Iran, where they're arrested and almost executed; through Turkey, Greece, Yugoslavia, Germany. And the farther they chase Cacciato, the clearer it becomes: They, too, are abandoning the war. They become civilians; they stop marching and start walking; Paul Berlin even finds love. When the squad finally reaches Paris, the mission appears all but dead. They try to balance soldierly duties with newfound freedom, only to discover that to gain, and maintain, true freedom, they must soldier again -- they must capture Cacciato.

Like Paul Berlin's mind, Going After Cacciato is mixed up (though appropriately so). It jumps in time and place and story; weaves and binds together reality and imagination; leaves you with a collage of the war and its characters. Its structure is underscored by the rough, yet lyrical, prose of Tim O'Brien.

Published in 1978, Going After Cacciato won the National Book Award, cementing Tim O'Brien's place as the literary voice of the Vietnam War. This was validated in 1990 with the publication of his best-known book, The Things They Carried, and later by In the Lake of the Woods.

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Jul 26, 2012 NC Weil rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, vietnam

In my Vietnam series, this is a well-structured novel. O'Brien, whose book The Things They Carried does not declare itself either novel or memoir, is a fine writer. With restrained prose and beautiful detail, he serves up the horrors of war.

Going After Cacciato is the story of an Army grunt who walks away from the war, having decided to walk to Paris, and the platoon whose duty is to go after him and bring him back. At first, you say, "well, maybe. I guess it's possible." They follow as Cacciato...more

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Apr 19, 2012 Jonathan Briggs rated it 4 of 5 stars

Cacciato's got it all figured out. Rather than spend the rest of the war getting shot at or having to clear tunnels filled with angry Vietnamese, he's going to walk to Paris, 8,600 miles "on the nose." It's a possibility. "He's going up through Laos, then into Burma, and then some other country, I forget, and then India and Iran and Turkey, and then Greece, and the rest is easy. That's what he said. The rest is easy, he said. He had it all doped out." It's a possibility. But there's still the wa...more Cacciato's got it all figured out. Rather than spend the rest of the war getting shot at or having to clear tunnels filled with angry Vietnamese, he's going to walk to Paris, 8,600 miles "on the nose." It's a possibility. "He's going up through Laos, then into Burma, and then some other country, I forget, and then India and Iran and Turkey, and then Greece, and the rest is easy. That's what he said. The rest is easy, he said. He had it all doped out." It's a possibility. But there's still the war, so Spc. Paul Berlin, Doc Peret, the old lieutenant, Oscar, Stink and the rest of the squad go after him to bring him back. Cacciato -- "dumb as milk" but always ahead, always out of reach -- leads them through a surreal landscape of rabbithole logic as if they were newly dead spirits trying to find their way in the fog of an unfamiliar netherworld.

In "Cacciato," Tim O'Brien laid the groundwork for some of the themes he would revisit (some might say rehash) in his truly great work, "The Things They Carried." What is fact? What is fantasy? And where on the scale does the deeper truth lie? "War has its own reality." What is courage? What is cowardice? And which is more difficult?

How many times have you had a book latch on to you immediately? Most of the time there's a getting-to-know-you period: 50-100 pages in which you decide whether you're right for each other, whether it's a work worth spending time with and mulling over or if it's bound for the Closet of Books-to-Be-Traded-at-the-Paperback-Exchange. O'Brien got his hooks in me within the first few paragraphs of "Cacciato." His prose is lean but expressive like Hemingway's, and the dialog takes on repetitious, hypnotic rhythms like David Mamet's.

Though "Cacciato" is O'Brien's breakthrough award-winner book, it suffers a bit in comparison to "The Things They Carried," arguably the greatest novel ever written about the U.S. combat soldier in Vietnam. The National Book Award folks jumped the gun in giving their prize to O'Brien before he'd reached his highest achievement as a writer. If you've never read him before, start with "Things," a classic that belongs on the shelf of every serious reader, then go back to "Cacciato" to get a look at one of O'Brien's earlier steps toward brilliance. But make sure you do come back. After all, how many Vietnam War novels feature a high-speed, pyrotechnic chase involving tanks, a Tehran traffic circle and a 1964 Impala pimpmobile with fuzzy dice and leopard upholstery.(less)

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Nov 29, 2011 Ryandake rated it 4 of 5 stars

first up on the back cover of the book: "To call Going After Cacciato a novel about war is like calling Moby-Dick a novel about whales."

i'd like to officially eyeroll this guy (an NYT reviewer). it is a novel about war, and a really damned good one. a kind of strange war, where only our guys get killed (one exception, passed over pretty quickly). plenty of our guys get greased, but somehow the book seems to think it is impolite to talk about the ones our guys kill.

anyway. that aside.

i kept thin...more

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May 05, 2011 Todd rated it 4 of 5 stars

I would probably give this about a 3.8, not quite a four, which is actually what the average rating is.

I bet this book was an entirely different experience before LOST came out, or at least before the series finale aired. I knew something completely wrong was happening, something fantastical, but I couldn't put my finger on it because I kept thinking that someone, maybe Berlin/may Cacciato, had died violently and Berlin/the squad was collectively making up this fiction. The whole imaginary/real...more

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Nov 10, 2010 Jon Steel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: o-brien, courage, self-control

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 22, 2010 Drew Teutsch rated it 5 of 5 stars

“In October, near the end of the month, Cacciato left the war.” With this, Going After Cacciato, a novel about the Vietnam war, memory, and imagination, begins. In his novel, O’Brien tells the story of young Spec Four Paul Berlin and his squad’s pursuit of Cacciato, an AWOL soldier who decided to leave his squad and the war altogether, to and embark on a journey from Vietnam to Paris, a destination located nearly eight thousand, six hundred miles away. As the squad chases Cacciato, the theatre o...more
“In October, near the end of the month, Cacciato left the war.” With this, Going After Cacciato, a novel about the Vietnam war, memory, and imagination, begins. In his novel, O’Brien tells the story of young Spec Four Paul Berlin and his squad’s pursuit of Cacciato, an AWOL soldier who decided to leave his squad and the war altogether, to and embark on a journey from Vietnam to Paris, a destination located nearly eight thousand, six hundred miles away. As the squad chases Cacciato, the theatre of war becomes the theatre of imagination, in which the experiences and aspirations of the soldiers are explored. Although at times lighthearted, Going After Cacciato tackles the weighty subject of war and its effects on those involved. A blend of reality and fantasy, O’Brian beautifully and hauntingly creates a powerful tale about an unpopular war.

Going After Cacciato develops in three distinct, yet interwoven parts. The first is the story, told mostly by episodes of flashbacks, through Paul Berlin’s experiences in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. The second part consists of several chapters, all entitled “The Observation Post,” in which Paul Berlin is on guard during the early hours between sunset and sunrise. Chronologically later than the chapters recounting, Paul’s experiences in the war, these chapters follow the thoughts of Paul, in which he questions the nature of reality, and “what happened” as opposed to “what might have happened” in the war. The third and final strand follows an imaginary journey from Vietnam to Paris, his squad’s pursuit of Cacciato, through which Paul explores all of the possibilities of the war. Paul constructs this story while he is on guard at the observation tower. Throughout the novel, O’Brian constantly jumps between the pursuit of Cacciato to Paul’s past experiences and back to the observation tower, often at times of high suspense. As a result, periods filled with detailed action scenes mix with thoughts concerning war and the emotions associated with it. By constructing his novel in this way, O’Brian leads the reader to question what is in the novel is reality, and what is merely a part of Paul Berlin’s imagination.

The majority of Paul Berlin’s recollections of his past experiences in the war involve the deaths of squad members. Among the dead was Billy Boy Watkins, who died of fright on the battle field, Bernie Lynn and Frenchie Tucker, who were killed when trying to clear out a tunnel, and Lieutenant Sidney Martin, killed by his own men for insisting that the men follow standard operating procedure. While their deaths come at no surprise, as they are mentioned in the beginning paragraph of the novel, the circumstances under which they die provoke curiosity in the reader. These events come to the surface several times throughout the novel, with the descriptions becoming more detailed, and Paul’s reality becoming increasingly more surreal. The significance of their deaths however, comes not from their deaths, but the conditions in which they died; for example, the deaths of Bernie and Frenchie were unintentionally caused by Lt. Martin’s stubbornness to follow protocol. Through this, O’Brian is able to convey the emotions felt by the soldiers confronted with these horrors and the loss of a comrade.

Among the most engaging aspects of Going After Cacciato is O’Brian’s writing technique and diction. The dialogue created in the novel is superb, due to the fact that O’Brian attempts to accurately imitate how soldiers in Vietnam spoke to one another. By including elements such as frequent cursing in the soldier’s dialogue, O’Brian creates a more realistic atmosphere that is crucial to the book. In addition, O’Brian’s vivid descriptions create virtually tangible images in one’s head, providing a feeling of being alongside Paul Berlin and his squad. From a description of Paul witnessing a squad member getting gunned down by a friendly chopper gunner to Paul’s memory of walking up a mountain top in Vietnam, O’Brian utilizes a variety of situations and capitalizes on them through usage of his descriptive technique, thus causing the reader to more easily connect to the situation, and feel apart of the action. Through a vast usage of similes, metaphors, and other literary techniques O’Brian successfully adds depth to situations as simple as climbing a mountain. “The road was cracked like clay pottery, and the grass alongside it was brittle. If the wind had been blowing, the grass would have rustled like straw brooms against an oak floor…” While reading such a passage, one is able to feel as if they are in the boots of one of the soldiers fighting in the war.

Another appealing facet of the novel is O’Brian’s ability to seamlessly combine humorous events with the tragic effect of war. At times humorous, at times intense, and often at times managing to be both at once, O’Brian takes the reader into the mind of a soldier fighting in the Vietnam War. In one instance, Doc Peret, a member of Paul’s squad, calls the zone in which bomb craters were filled with rain and the bodies of the dead the “World’s Greatest Lake County.” After hearing this, Cacciato tries to go fishing in one of the craters. In one of Paul’s first days in the army, he and fifty new recruits were marched to a set of bleachers in which they simply sat and watched a corporal watch the sea silently. After about an hour, he got up and told the recuits, “that completes your fist lecture on how to survive this shit. I hope you paid attention.”

Tim O’Brian’s Going After Cacciato, is a remarkable piece of literature. The novel is much more than simply a story about the Vietnam War, it is a novel about the power of the human imagination. O’Brian leads the reader to ask whether the imagination is strong enough to overcome evil, to create new endings to old stories, and to dream of a way out of war itself. While the ending remains ambiguous, O’Brien explores these questions in a beautiful and heartbreaking way. An intelligent blend of drama, thought-provoking situations, memorable characters, humor, and a thorough discussion on the effects of war, Going After Cacciato is more than deserving of its praise.
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Aug 28, 2010 Debbi rated it 5 of 5 stars

My first Tim O'Brien book was THE THINGS THEY CARRIED, a collection of stories based on his experiences as a soldier in the Vietnam War. I was so taken with his writing I decided to read JULY, JULY next. A novel about a class reunion that I thought might be too much like The Big Chill – but it wasn't.

So, knowing (I thought) what to expect, I picked up GOING AFTER CACCIATO. I guess I was expecting something like Saving Private Ryan, but it's not even close to that. In this book, O'Brien once agai...more

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Apr 21, 2010 Brandon Raygada rated it 3 of 5 stars

After reading Tim O'Brien's "Things They Carried" I was compelled to read "Going After Cacciato" after reading its constant reference in "Things They Carried". Like most of O'Brien's books, it is a fiction story about the Vietnam War, with a non-fictional undertone. The main character is Paul Berlin, who is also a character in "Things They Carried". Other supporting characters can definitely relate to those in "Things They Carried". The main plot revolves around First Private Paul Berlin's boun...more After reading Tim O'Brien's "Things They Carried" I was compelled to read "Going After Cacciato" after reading its constant reference in "Things They Carried". Like most of O'Brien's books, it is a fiction story about the Vietnam War, with a non-fictional undertone. The main character is Paul Berlin, who is also a character in "Things They Carried". Other supporting characters can definitely relate to those in "Things They Carried". The main plot revolves around First Private Paul Berlin's bounce between reality and his imagination. In reality, he recaps the deaths of his fellow platoon members as well as other significant events in during the war. However, he constantly switches to his alternate reality in which he and his platoon are trailing a deserting soldier, Cacciato, aiming to walk to Paris. Another one of his imaginative situations is his night at an Observation Post on a beach, isolated from the war. The story is mainly about their chase after Cacciato but the story repeatedly jumps to recaps of past events and his quiet, safe Observation Post.
The central conflict is man vs. himself. This is developed by Paul Berlin's inability to stand the harshness of the war. His imagination is his proof for overcoming his conflict. He uses his split reality of chasing after Cacciato and being at his Observation Post to help him cope with the impact of the war on him as a soldier. It is apparent that the death of his fellow platoon members is haunting him because of his constant reference to the past in which platoon members had been killed. The theme of the novel is that soldiers use humor and imagination as coping mechanisms, to transform the tragedies of war into tolerable memories. This is expressed by the platoon turning the death of Billy Boy Watkins into a marching song. More so, it is expressed in Paul Berlin's fictional was stories, in which things do not turn out as tragic.
The writing style in the book is a big step down from O'Brien's "Things They Carried". The language is a lot simpler and informal. After reading "Things They Carried" it is almost disappointing how drastically different the form of the story is told as well as the language in which it is told. However, it does show O'Brien's improvement as a writing, being how "Going After Cacciato" is one of his earliest novels. It shows how his writing style has altered and how his state of mind regarding his own war experiences has changed overtime. I would recommend this book only if one hasn't already read "Things They Carried." The plot is decent and the characterization is great. (less)

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Dec 24, 2009 Lindsey rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult, historical

After reading another book by the author, I decided to try O'Brien out again. The reason I only gave it three stars is because there were points where I was confused in the story. It was disjointed, which I am sure was intentional since you can draw obvious connections to what the soldiers experienced in the war of Vietnam with no clear fighting goals or objectives.

Favorite quote: He was a big man with moustaches drooping to his chin; his hair was black, he was a history teller: "I speak only of...more

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May 23, 2013 Bryan Fauble added it

**not a final essay, may revise soon

The Unknown of the Jungle
Essay by Bryan Fauble
Going after Cacciato, by Tim O’Brien, is a war book, however, this is not a war book about war. It is about the emotions and hardships that the soldiers and refugees had during the Vietnam war. There were many horrendous things that happened in that war, many things that the men who fought it want to forget. It was a war where it turned teenagers into killers paranoid of every shadow or blade of grass. The story f...more **not a final essay, may revise soon

The Unknown of the Jungle
Essay by Bryan Fauble
Going after Cacciato, by Tim O’Brien, is a war book, however, this is not a war book about war. It is about the emotions and hardships that the soldiers and refugees had during the Vietnam war. There were many horrendous things that happened in that war, many things that the men who fought it want to forget. It was a war where it turned teenagers into killers paranoid of every shadow or blade of grass. The story focuses on a group of soldiers who had been together for many months. One of their own, Cacciato, is a happy, quiet, ‘dumbo’. Cacciato's decision to leave leads the group on wild chase that challenges their own beliefs and understanding. There is a very peculiar writing style in the novel, there are flashbacks to previous events, things out of order, and many contradictory events.
There are many characters in the novel, and each of them bring an entire new perspective on the time period and how people felt about the war. Lt. sidney martin was the previous leader who, with his west point training, believed in doing everything by the book and do things like search tunnels before blowing them. Under his command and order there were a few men who died, but also many were saved in his command. Frenchie tucker died in a tunnel, Bernie Lynn died going after Tucker. Buff dies while crossing a field, Ready mix died storming a hill, and Billy Boy Watkins was scared to death on the field of battle. Although some died, there were also many that lived, but those that lived did not do so easily, they had to carry the burden of the dead. The thoughts of the past friends weighed the soldiers down every step.
Tim O'Brien is a very peculiar writer. The way that he sets up many of his stories is very unique. There are many aspects that leave you with a feeling of not knowing what exactly happened, how it happened, or if there is a purpose to what happened. The way that the novel is set up is set in such a way that it hard to keep straight when things happened. Throughout the story there are flashbacks to when the squad just arrived in Vietnam, and inter spliced with those bits of information you have the main story of the squad chasing Cacciato. Because of this writing style the ending of the story is not clear to the reader, they are left with not knowing what happened. When the group finally tracks down and goes in to catch Cacciato they are surprised by something that is unknown to the reader. There is nothing more but an unknown force that hits Berlin. After this event it bleeds into a flashback when they are back in Vietnam, there is no pause in the story. There are a variety of events in the novel that make some events unclear as to when they happened and to who, as in each story someone could be dead or alive in the next. Tim O'Brien has a very unique writing style that leaves the reader a bit confused, but this works very well. The style also helps to show how many of the soldiers who fought the war were constantly without purpose, without motivation, and always in confusion fighting for a people they did not understand.
Overall, this is a very well put together and successful novel, even though at times it can drone on and on. The emotion of the American soldiers are portrayed in such a way that all we can do is feel sorry for their situation. The book leaves off on the mass confusion that many soldiers had when fighting the VC, in one moment they could get fired at and not know from where. It is just a small piece of how they feel in the entire scheme of the war, but it is one piece that stuck with every soldier through their service.
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Oct 31, 2011 Sandralee rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is the third of Tim O'Brien's books I've read. Maybe I've read them out of sequence or maybe there is no sequence. This one was a winner of the National Book Award and other awards. Of the two - Going After Cacciato and The Things They Carried, I would have to say I learned more about the war and its effect on the heroes who served their country there. I'm not going to write a book about it, just suffice to say experiencing Going After Cacciato is a totally different kind of animal from The...more

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Aug 11, 2010 Jeff rated it 5 of 5 stars

My mind might just be odd, but the first time I read Going After Cacciato I completely missed the fact that we were dealing with fantasy and reality in the book. Wait, that might not be true. I completely confused what was fantasy and what was reality. By the end of the book I was very angry at the way everything turned out. I also hated Paul Berlin.

But I think that is why the book continues to be one of my all time favorites. Like all works of literature, it's going to strike everyone different...more

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Oct 28, 2010 Francisco Carmona rated it 2 of 5 stars

I choose this book for my English Literature class from school, I got reviews about this book from my teacher and the lady who runs the library in my school. So, because of the good reviews I got, I decide to choose this book. I admit, Im not a person that likes to read that much, I basically do it if is necessary or if I'am very interested on the book.
This book was written by Tim O'Brien, a veteran from Vietnam War how writes about his experiences during the war. He is a great novelist/short...more I choose this book for my English Literature class from school, I got reviews about this book from my teacher and the lady who runs the library in my school. So, because of the good reviews I got, I decide to choose this book. I admit, Im not a person that likes to read that much, I basically do it if is necessary or if I'am very interested on the book.
This book was written by Tim O'Brien, a veteran from Vietnam War how writes about his experiences during the war. He is a great novelist/short story writer, he earn the National Book Award for this book. "Going After Cacciato" is a book that talks about how a soldier, named Cacciato decided to go AWOL from his battalion, because of some traumatic experiences he has experienced. Private Cacciato has the self-assinged mission of walking from Vietnam in Asia all the way to Paris, France; which is in Europe. He wants to go to Paris for a gay parade, as his former war partners say. Clearly this sounds impossible, but Cacciato thinks he can do it. However, one day later his former squad, that he abandon realized that he is missing. Instead of reporting to the MP (Military Police), Lt. Corson decides to take over the mission of getting Cacciato back to the squad. The book narrates how the squad goes in search of Cacciato. This book is narrated and protagonist by Paul Berlin, one of the soldiers in the mission to "catch" Cacciato; however he is obsessed with accomplishing his mission, more than other soldiers.
I admit this book at the beginning, it's not very interesting. When you continuo reading into the book, you will find yourself attach to it, it gets really descriptive about the war scene, it also doss it with landscapes, temperature and conditions of Vietnam. So, if your in an impatient person don't even think of grabbing this book, because it will be a waste of time. If you are patient, I totally recommend this book, you will like it at last. Specially, If your into history of wars.

In conclusion, Good Book. Give it a shot (:(less)

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Oct 19, 2010 Claudia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Claudia by: Mr. B, Parker

Shelves: contemporary-fiction

Wow. I forget O'Brien's power between his books. This one is full of all the trademark elements: authenticity of place and time, finely-drawn characters, details that could only be shared with an author who had LIVED that life. His scenes of the boredom, the pick-up basketball games, and then the sheer terror of having to 'follow the book' and go down into those hell-holes of the tunnels, leave us little doubt he has experienced all this and more.

Berlin and his buddies go after sweet, dopey, Cac...more

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Jan 05, 2013 Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Paul Berlin - from Iowa, 20 years old, more child than man - is drafted and sent to Vietnam; Paul Berlin does not have a clue about the army, why they're fighting the war, or who the enemy really is. With his squad he roams the countryside, blowing up tunnels, sitting in foxholes in the mud and rain, burning villages, slaughtering the peasants of the land, and watching his comrades get injured, sicken, and die. Another member of the squad - Cacciato - finally decides he's had enough; he's walkin...more

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Nov 15, 2011 Jordan Dix rated it 5 of 5 stars

Imagination is what writers work best with. Tim O’Brien takes this to a whole new lever in his novel Going After Cacciato. Cacciato is stationed in the Vietnam was at a security outpost, the reader is brought into the adventures of him and his command squad. Cacciato is stated to have “gone AWOL,” at least to his comrades, and essentially he has. Almost everything in this story is not real; we are placed in dream sequences that we think everything is what it seems, but it is not. Cacciato’s insa...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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“Imagination, like reality, has its limits.” — 9 people liked it

“A miracle to confound natural law, a baffling reversal of the inevitable consequences . . . a miracle. . . . An act of high imagination -- daring and lurid and impossible. Yes, a cartoon of the mind.” — 6 people liked it

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