The Things They Carried

There were a few insightfull stories in this tome. But, this book is written by a real liberal. In his eyes there is no winning. There is only digging one hole to be filled by digging another. Tim O'Brien is a wimp, part of the wussification of America. There is no black or white just ambiguity. This explains why this book is used so much by colleges and universities (liberal educators). In effect this book says "I am so smart that I can't actually kill the man that wants and WILL kill me. I can look though the enemy's eyes and I am the enemy." What a lot of drivel. When America and the rest of the Western World is taken over by Islam his descendents and mine will bow reverently toward Mecca.

This was such a good book!! My college professor was the editor which is honestly the only way I would have ever come across this because he had us read it for class. I loved it. It was so real and easy to get attached to the characters, as if you were reading about friends. Definitely worth trying out if you don't typically read something of this genre.

More than just a war novel, it's a study of the individual and of humanity. While the line between fiction and the author's experiences and that between fantasy and reality is often blurred, O'Brien's writing style is amazing.

That being said, the book still disappointed me with its total lack of subtlety and redundancy. I found myself skipping through entire paragraphs because I had read them before in previous stories, and I was irritated by the constant, exhuasted refrain, "I'm forty-three years old, and a writer now..."

O'Brien is very clear on the point that, with a true war story, morality and truth are not necessary. I appreciate this, and I give him credit for the fact that his book echoes his own definition of the Vietnam War itself - vague, ambivalent, undefined, and without clarity or consistency. This, I feel he does fairly effectively, but for the fact that he repeatedly reminds the reader that that is his purpose. However, the inconsistency of the book, and the seemingly haphazard arrangement of the stories, made it difficult to follow at times, and overall it felt very sloppily written and constructed.

Tim O'Brien's invokes in the reader a feeling of deeply understanding the war experiences of Vietnam War soldiers. His writing is amazing. This will stand the test of time.