Before writing his award-winning Going After Cacciato, Tim O'Brien gave us this searing, intensely personal account of his year as a foot so...
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May 20, 2011
Amanda
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For me, Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried is the most powerful book that I have every read and it's the standard against which I judge all things O'Brien. In The Things They Carried, O'Brien plays with nonlinear and fragmented narrative structure, magical realism, and the power of storytelling to capture the visceral truth that telling the real story can't quite capture. For O'Brien, we must sometimes turn to fiction to capture what is "emotionally true" and, in doing so, be less
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Dec 14, 2007
Mark
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War, what is it good for?
Requested this from my local library on Veterans Day, and just plowed through it on my daily Metro grind this week. I'm not much of a memoir-reader generally, but I thought that it would be appropriate reading in honor of Veterans Day (well, sort of). In some ways it was your typical Vietnam-dysfunctional story that we have all heard before. I think the thing that was most interesting though was the personalization of the dysfunctional war story, and the th More...
Requested this from my local library on Veterans Day, and just plowed through it on my daily Metro grind this week. I'm not much of a memoir-reader generally, but I thought that it would be appropriate reading in honor of Veterans Day (well, sort of). In some ways it was your typical Vietnam-dysfunctional story that we have all heard before. I think the thing that was most interesting though was the personalization of the dysfunctional war story, and the th More...
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Aug 13, 2011
Victor
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If I die in a combat zone by Tim O’Brien, is a personal document of his point of view on the Vietnam War. He describes Vietnam in ways civilians on the other side of the world would of never thought what a soldier goes through or what goes through their mind. He starts of by describing a situation they get in with the Vietcong, like giving a taste of what’s to come ahead. Then he takes us through the beginning of how he got drafted all the way to when he comes back from the war, with personal
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Jan 11, 2011
Sam
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Jun 17, 2010
This is one of the books I used for my exhibition project but i finished reading it completely after that and it was very helpful and deep/meaningful book.
This is a paragraph from my exhibition,
"In If I Die in a Combat Zone, Tim O’Brien is very obedient with orders and does not express much sympathy towards the Vietnamese civilians or enemy. In Chapter 5, “Under the Mountain”, Tim is in training camp with his friend Eric and they form a coalition based on an idea: “The i More...
This is a paragraph from my exhibition,
"In If I Die in a Combat Zone, Tim O’Brien is very obedient with orders and does not express much sympathy towards the Vietnamese civilians or enemy. In Chapter 5, “Under the Mountain”, Tim is in training camp with his friend Eric and they form a coalition based on an idea: “The i More...
Nov 12, 2009
Steves
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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be drafted into the war at a young age? Tim O’Brien experiences first hand the stresses and decisions that needed to be made when he first learned he was drafted for the Vietnam War in the summer of 1968. In the memoir If I Died in a Combat Zone: Box Me up and Ship Me Home, Tim O’Brien talked with his friends as he explains, “I was persuaded then, and I remain persuaded now, that the war was wrong. And since it was wrong and since people were dying
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Apr 22, 2011
Larry
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Tim O’Brien’s war story could have been me. A 1968 college graduate, Tim accepts being drafted in spite of his opposition to the war. He goes to basic training then infantry training, decides to desert to Sweden when it is clear that he is headed for Vietnam, changes his mind mid-desertion and goes off to war. As they say, the rest is historical fiction.
Thi More...
Can the foot soldier teach anything about war, merely for having been there? I think not. He can tell war stories.
Thi More...
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May 06, 2011
Sherri
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I read part of this for a Vietnam literary circle activity with junior high school students. I decided to finish it because I wanted to know about O'Brien's early work.
This memoir was written by a young Tim O'Brien- shortly after he returned from Vietnam where he was a foot soldier. It was published more than 20 years before The Things They Carried (one of the most powerful books I've ever read and taught) so it doesn't represent his best writing.
This is still great, how More...
This memoir was written by a young Tim O'Brien- shortly after he returned from Vietnam where he was a foot soldier. It was published more than 20 years before The Things They Carried (one of the most powerful books I've ever read and taught) so it doesn't represent his best writing.
This is still great, how More...
Jan 02, 2011
Douglas
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I got this book from Dr. Ahmed, a historian at the university, who sweats along in the elliptical next to me at the gym each morning. We were talking about some of the various history courses that are being taught at the university and we got on the subject of Vietnam.
I was right on the cusped of being involved in this war, I saw many of my friends’ older brothers who got drafted and never came back the same. All the time I was growing up there were "body counts" on More...
I was right on the cusped of being involved in this war, I saw many of my friends’ older brothers who got drafted and never came back the same. All the time I was growing up there were "body counts" on More...
Dec 02, 2011
Josh
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If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home marks my third foray into Tim O'Brien's Vietnam War experience. Going After Cacciato was a compelling trip into the haze of 'Nam. The Things They Carried was one of the most deeply affective books I've ever read. This third trip into Vietnam from perhaps the most accomplished author on the subject (at least in the realm of fiction) is a much more personal book.
Unlike his books to follow, If I Die in a Combat Zone is memoir. It is hi More...
Unlike his books to follow, If I Die in a Combat Zone is memoir. It is hi More...
Jan 29, 2011
Zaki
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Brilliant. Gave me the vocabulary to communicate better in Call of Duty. I tried reading Ernest Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls for the same purpose but his style didn't stick with me. I'm a warmonger and my dream is for the world to be engaged in perpetual conflict. Love war because War is Peace.
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Nov 02, 2011
Jordan
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If I Die in a Combat Zone is about the author from The Things They Carried and Going After Cacciato, Tim O'Brien. He tells his story of being drafted to go to war in Vietnam and it is a good book so far, I like war books so I think it will be good and also its an easier read. Tim O'Brien didn't want to get drafted and he doesn't think of himself as a soldier the only thing he wants to do now is go to Europe to write books and travel and see the world and not to go to war.
10-26-11
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Feb 12, 2012
Kyle
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This book was exactly what I was looking for. It is an autobiography by Tim O'Brien about his life right before he entered the Army and his life during his time spent in Vietnam. In the book, O'Brien tells of his childhood and you come to the conclusion that he had an average childhood. He decided to go into the Army even though he made it clear that he was against the Vietnam War. He is sent to Fort Lewis for basic training. After that, he is told that he will be a fot soldier in Vietnam. He ha
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Jan 04, 2012
I just started reading this book on Monday and already I'm about half way through it. I am hooked. I really like Tim O'Brian and a couple of the his books that I have read in the past, but If I Die in a War Zone is defiantly my favorite so far. It reminds me a lot of The Things They Carried. I think it might be the same book actually. I plan on finishing this book by the time Christmas break rolls around which won't be to hard if i just keep on reading the same amount of pages I have so far.
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Sep 21, 2010
Bjorn
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There is no greater story than a war story. There are so many details, struggles, characters, and settings that are spoken about. This autobiographical account of O'Brien's tour in Vietnam. Life experiences play a major role in how we write a novel or a short story. This book showed us how to really grasp my life lessons and experiences and incorporate them into my attempts at writing short stories. Recalling is the easy part, but what is difficult is not just making what you experienced interes
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Mar 23, 2011
Linda
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The stewardess serves a meal and passes out magazines. The plan lans in Japan and takes on fuel. Then you fly straight on to Seattle. What kind of war is it that begins and ends this way, with a pretty girl, cushioned seats and magazines?
You add things up. You lost a friend to the war, and you gained a friend. You compromised one principle and fulfilled another. You learned, as old men tell it in front of the courthouse, that was is not all bad; it may not make a man of you, but it teaches More...
You add things up. You lost a friend to the war, and you gained a friend. You compromised one principle and fulfilled another. You learned, as old men tell it in front of the courthouse, that was is not all bad; it may not make a man of you, but it teaches More...
Oct 25, 2008
Simon
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This book is about the author's year long tour of Vietnam.
What I found interesting about the book
- this is not a book about a hero - it's just a book about an ordinary person who is drafted and spends a year in a warzone.
- he is college educated and appears above the average working class stiff that makes up the majority of his platton. He is more interested in literature and poetry. Definitely not a man's man, he despises the banality of his fellow soldiers and makes f More...
What I found interesting about the book
- this is not a book about a hero - it's just a book about an ordinary person who is drafted and spends a year in a warzone.
- he is college educated and appears above the average working class stiff that makes up the majority of his platton. He is more interested in literature and poetry. Definitely not a man's man, he despises the banality of his fellow soldiers and makes f More...
Jul 27, 2011
Millicent
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Simple, painful memoir of a reluctant soldier's year in Vietnam. O'Brien brings Plato into it to ask questions about justice and courage, the courageousness of fighting an unjust war, but in the end holds to 'show don't tell;' the memoir is mostly show, because there aren't really answers. Despite this, the story remained bitter but not deadened: soft. I mean that in a good way.
There was a strange void in the raw exposition of war horrors that did not quite empathize with Vietname More...
There was a strange void in the raw exposition of war horrors that did not quite empathize with Vietname More...
Nov 24, 2008
Powells.com
rated it:
During the Vietnam war, Tim O'Brien spent a year in the U.S. infantry. As a result, he wrote If I Die in a Combat Zone (Box Me Up and Ship Me Home), an account of his experiences there. He doesn't spare us the terrible particulars of this piece of our history: it's what has made us; it is us; and it's the story that we continue to tell ourselves. War is the engine of horror and dead souls from which we do not seem to be able to part.
Recommended by Gin, Powells.com
Recommended by Gin, Powells.com
Sep 20, 2009
R.
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Good intro to Vietnam combat lit for those who know little about the war from the foot soldier's perspective, but often gets mired in cliche. I'm a fan of O'Brien's writing generally, but Phil Caputo has this one beat by a mile. There are brief instances of the brilliance O'Brien displays in 'The ThingsThey Carried' - his discourse upon courage, for example, and the final pages about returning the the States - but most of the text comes off as standard Vietnam faire.
Jan 02, 2011
Caroline
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One of the strengths of this book is that it truly reads as if O'Brien is actually trying to work through his experience, rather than selling you his final contemplations and conclusions. Much of this is achieved because many passages were written during his tour, and the malaise and resignation weigh heavy and real. It is interspersed with poetry and philosophy, and yet it all comes off sincere and appropriate rather than pompous or misplaced.
Jan 08, 2012
Michael
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The main them of the book centers on courage and bravery. It didn't appeal to the war aspect in terms of the details.
Clearly, Tim O'Brien was not cut out for war. That is NOT an insult. I would have probably felt the same way in this war. So, to clarify, clearly this war was not for him as it was not for a lot of people. I think most people, based on his experience of what I read, allowed them to succumb to the mindset one must have in war.
I was hoping to read more a More...
Clearly, Tim O'Brien was not cut out for war. That is NOT an insult. I would have probably felt the same way in this war. So, to clarify, clearly this war was not for him as it was not for a lot of people. I think most people, based on his experience of what I read, allowed them to succumb to the mindset one must have in war.
I was hoping to read more a More...
Jul 08, 2011
Matt
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Amazing and harrowing account of Tim O'Brien's signing up for infantry duty in Vietnam, his realization that he didn't actually support the war, his attempt to go AWOL from training and decision to go, if only to not let down his hometown and parents. And that's just the first few chapters.
Read this while on trains in France and Benelux, which for some reason seemed to put the whole tale into an even more surreal perspective.
Read this while on trains in France and Benelux, which for some reason seemed to put the whole tale into an even more surreal perspective.
Jan 07, 2012
Quothe
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More a collection of journal entries with some common threads than an actual memoir. Tim O'brien writes with intelligence and wry humor. He is the first to admit he was no soldier, a stance many of us can relate to. He was simply a young man conflicted by internal beliefs and external pressures, some of which he attempts to work through in the book. Toss a thinking, feeling man into a mad war zone and this is the result.
Jul 08, 2011
Jeannie
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Sadly, a vivid description of the motives, training and experience of a foot soldier in Vietnam. Politicians, especially the chicken hawks, should be required to read these books on war, before they so glibly send our young men off to do their battles. The Pat Tillman's of the world should read the book so they know what they are volunteering for. I was hoping Vietnam would be a lesson, but apparently memories are short.
Mar 27, 2009
Jonathan
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I really enjoyed this book. I believe that the author describes very real feelings of an intellectual being pulled into a war that he doesn't want any part of. He also does a good job describing the burtality of war, but I've read that before. What makes this book interesting is O'Brien's struggle to find his way through all of his objections and confusion about what is going on around him.
Apr 03, 2009
Rebecca
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Jul 26, 2011
Kate
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This book was somewhat of a disappointment. After reading "The Things They Carried," I couldn't wait to read his memoir. While the writing style was excellent, it just wasn't as interesting as his other book. It didn't draw me in and captivate me as much as "The Things They Carried." Maybe, sometimes, reality just isn't quite as exciting as fiction.
Jun 01, 2011
Miranda
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O'Brien's language and simplistic stylistics created a deep, rich plot line made the characters and scenes come alive. The detail in the scenes and emotions displayed by the characters--I almost forgot that this book is fiction--not nonfiction. O'Brien's observations of Vietnam and life drew me in. I would read this book again and again.
Mar 13, 2011
Sarah
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This book is considered O’Brien’s true account of his time spent as a foot soldier in Vietnam. I have read two of his novels of his also dealing with Vietnam and found them much better. Not just that the stories were richer, but I thought the writing better. I am glad that I read this, as I really enjoyed The Things They Carried, and Going After Cacciato and knowing that O’Brien is obsessed with a true war story. With that in mind, it is a little hard to take this true account, well, truthfully.
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