From the Bookshelf of EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club…

The Things They Carried

Tim O'Brien

Start date: March 1, 2024

Finish date: March 31, 2024

Discussion: MODERN / POPULAR READS

Why we're reading this: March 2024 - Modern

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What Members Thought

May 09, 2017 Ian Anderson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Better late than never for this short review but I feel obligated since I'm able to visualize most of the thing weeks later. I didn't read the description going into this book so I had this notion it would be a man's war story, both violent and emotional, which no doubt it is but it's a compilation of many stories rather than a single, chronological story. I also had no idea that it's considered a piece of literature, not just a regular old non-fiction book. Okay, basically I knew nothing, you c ...more

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Aug 27, 2013 Ellie 9218 rated it really liked it

The Things They Carried is a collection of short stories (but it reads like a novel since the same characters are in every story) about a group of men and their experiences in the swamps, forests, and jungles of Vietnam in 1964. Yes, it’s a work of fiction, but I thought I was reading a memoir. I cannot even begin to describe how wonderfully written these stories are. The writing is just breathtaking!

The very first story called “The Things They Carried” was my absolute favorite. Here's a few pas The Things They Carried is a collection of short stories (but it reads like a novel since the same characters are in every story) about a group of men and their experiences in the swamps, forests, and jungles of Vietnam in 1964. Yes, it’s a work of fiction, but I thought I was reading a memoir. I cannot even begin to describe how wonderfully written these stories are. The writing is just breathtaking!

The very first story called “The Things They Carried” was my absolute favorite. Here's a few passages:

"They carried chess sets, basket balls, Vietnamese-English dictionaries, insignia of rank, Bronze Stars and Purple Hearts, plastic cards imprinted with the Code of Conduct. They carried diseases, among them malaria and dysentery. They carried lice and ring worm and leeches and paddy algae and various rots and molds. They carried the land itself – Vietnam, the place, the soil – a powdery orange-red dust that covered their boots and fatigues and faces. They carried the sky. The whole atmosphere, they carried it, the humidity, the monsoons, the stink of fungus and decay, all of it, they carried gravity."

“The things they carried were largely determined by necessity. Pocket knives, can openers, lighters, water. What they carried was partly a function of rank, partly of field specialty. Maps, radios, binoculars, weapons. What they carried varied by mission. Mosquito netting, machetes, tarps, mine detectors. They all carried ghosts. Pictures, Bibles, a girlfriend’s pantyhose. The things they carried were determined to some extent by superstition. A good luck pebble, a rabbit’s foot, a shrunken thumb. For the most part, they carried themselves with poise, a kind of dignity.”

And while the cover says that this is a work of fiction, I don’t think so (in my opinion). Only someone who was there (like an infantry soldier who served in Vietnam) could write this.
This book perfectly describes the fear of 18 year old boys who were drafted against their will to fight a war that they didn't start. Reading a book like this makes me feel guilty to say that I enjoyed it (but I did). It just seems more appropriate to say that it affected me (because it did).

A very powerful book
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Apr 08, 2020 Joe Sims4 rated it really liked it

This, I believe, was my third time reading it; I don’t believe I actually read it in high school because I was not into that English class, but I’ve taught it once before. This time I read the majority of it out loud for videos for online distance learning. I am not a fan of war novels so much but I think this is an excellent book in this genre. The best chapters: “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” & “The Lives of the Dead.” The last chapter breaks my heart and I think I could use it without nece ...more

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Oct 06, 2014 Michelle rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, 2014-books-read

An amazing book! The writing was stellar! One man's poignant telling of his Vietnam experience. My favorite chapter was the one in which he describes how he ended up in Vietnam. What happened after he receive the draft notice. High School students should be reading this. It is truly an American classic. So glad I finally read it ...more

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