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41st out of 152 books
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192 voters
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The Things They Carried
by
Tim O'Brien
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 Vie...more
Paperback, 233 pages
Published
October 13th 2009
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
(first published 1990)
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130th out of 280 books
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90 voters
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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...more
Amanda
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
EVERYONE
Recommended to Amanda by:
Dr. Calloway
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 o...more
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 o...more
Cassy
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommended to Cassy by:
Creative Writing Professor R. Liddell
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 bl...more
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 bl...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...more
I gave it 4 stars, and yet sometimes I think it was 3 stars, and then...more
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. ...more
I'm breathless as I'm typing this, actually. ...more
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 h...more
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 e...more
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...more
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
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 c...more
*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 c...more
miaaa
rated it
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review of another edition
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 pr...more
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 pr...more
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 r...more
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 consid...more
I never consid...more
I read only parts of this collection back in college and it's only now that I'm reading the rest. I've been haunted by the title story ever since I first read it, and it's still powerful today. I think I read somewhere that it's one of the most anthologized short stories of American fiction. Probably. But now that I've read the rest of the book, I've gotta say, there are certainly stronger stories in there. Stories that still you. That make you feel your own breath. Fear. And that make m...more
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...more
"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...more
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 bo...more
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 bo...more
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 ...more
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 ...more
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 ...more
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.
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
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
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, ...more
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, ...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 tha...more
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 tha...more
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
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 fami...more
Absolutely gorgeous.
My favorite passage so far, from the short story, "On the Rainy River."
First sentence (p. 37): "This is one story I've never told before."
Last paragraph (p. 58): "The day was cloudy. I passed through towns with familiar names, through the pine forests and down to the prairie, and then to Vietnam, were I was a soldier, and then home again. I survived, but it's not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to the war."
...more
My favorite passage so far, from the short story, "On the Rainy River."
First sentence (p. 37): "This is one story I've never told before."
Last paragraph (p. 58): "The day was cloudy. I passed through towns with familiar names, through the pine forests and down to the prairie, and then to Vietnam, were I was a soldier, and then home again. I survived, but it's not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to the war."
...more
When I was young, I read an excerpt of the first chapter of this book in one of the reading sections of a standardized test. Even in those few, short paragraphs, I thought the writing was incredibly powerful. I looked at the citation at the end of the text, memorized it, and told myself that I absolutely had to read this book sooner rather than later.
Well, it took me quite a while to get around to it, but I finally have. And the rest of the book lived up to expectations. I've rea...more
Well, it took me quite a while to get around to it, but I finally have. And the rest of the book lived up to expectations. I've rea...more
The Things They Carried is an extraordinary novel by author Tim O'brien. O'brien has also written Going After Cacciato, If I Die in a Combat Zone , and many others. This novel is written as the thoughts of O'brien while he is looking back on the Vietnam War thirty years later. Each story told has a deeper meaning than first seen by the reader and they all have life long lessons that will never be forgotten. This novel contains stories about love, war, death, and many more!
What made this...more
Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried can easily be compared to Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. In both text the author is involved in a war—both in the physically and internally. Both authors are forever changed.
Both books are fictionalized tales of survival – O’Brien’s and Vonnegut’s. Both stories carry (no pun intended) a universal truth; the truth is hard to capture, this experience, the experience of war, is on many levels ineffable—un-relatable as a truth. O’Brien tells us, "...more
Both books are fictionalized tales of survival – O’Brien’s and Vonnegut’s. Both stories carry (no pun intended) a universal truth; the truth is hard to capture, this experience, the experience of war, is on many levels ineffable—un-relatable as a truth. O’Brien tells us, "...more
From my blog:
War books aren't my thing, as a rule, but this book caught my eye when I was browsing at our local Barnes & Noble before I left for the Philippines. The things that attracted my interest:
-The book is described as literature on the back cover. For a reader like me, this means that it's probably not just a (fictionalized) historical account (which wouldn't interest me, though it probably should).
-This book a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. This isn't a strong sell...more
War books aren't my thing, as a rule, but this book caught my eye when I was browsing at our local Barnes & Noble before I left for the Philippines. The things that attracted my interest:
-The book is described as literature on the back cover. For a reader like me, this means that it's probably not just a (fictionalized) historical account (which wouldn't interest me, though it probably should).
-This book a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. This isn't a strong sell...more
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| 2011/2012 AP Lit ...: "The Things They Carried" | 1 | 21 | Oct 02, 2011 04:37pm |
Tim O'Brien had 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...more
More about Tim O'Brien...
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...more
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“A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth.”
—
128 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. ”
—
116 people liked it
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