The Things They Carried

My daughter and I recently traveled to Hanoi and I came home wanting to know more about the Viet Nam war experience, which was core to my college years (1964-1968). Tim O'Brien captures the bravado, sweetness, fear, friendship, cruelty and horror that permeated that experience for our young men serving there. This is a must read for those in my generation who are still trying to understand the meaning of that long and desperate war that tore our country apart.

O'Brien's narrative is crude and unpatriotic. It is, by his own admission, one-sided, which proves to be one of its most significant undoings. The stories in them are difficult to follow at best, and poorly written at their worst. Believing that the stories are actually about the Vietnam War is a misconception. In the cover it says "This is a work of FICTION." (A poor one, I might add.) The stories entailed in the book are completely unbelievable. It is a disgrace. It is a disgrace to Vietnam, America, and Veterans of Vietnam. O' Brien gives no consideration to the reasons that America entered into the war, nor does he give thought to the fact that the Vietnam War actually contained numerous small victories for Democracy. He fails to mention how many South Vietnamese were in fact members of the National Liberation Front (also known as the Viet Cong) and intent on killing Americans. He paints the Vietnamese as a peace loving, kind people, victimized by evil foreign American intruders. The symbolism and repetitiveness in The Things They Carried are poorly written and obvious to a smart 3 year old. Maybe that's why when the Sweethart of Song Tra Bong was made as a movie, it was a B-Movie. Also when Tim O'Brien described "The Man that I killed," Tim O' Brien talks about a Vietnamese that he "shot." He makes constant and repeated references to the description of the man. He describes him over five time. Five TIMES. What, are you getting paid by the page or something? Do you need the extra $? Who cares? The whole book is awful. Reading the Wikipedia page on the book is more enjoyable than reading the book. Also, in "How to tell a true war story," he describes that a "true war story" should in essence be exaggerated. So if I want to tell you about what happened in a war, truthfully, I should lie? Does that make any sense? All of the stories, and in fact, the entire book only focus on the smallest fraction of events in Vietnam. O'Brien admits that himself. O'Brien includes numerous contradictions in his story for the purpose of illustrating the incongruities inherent to the Vietnam War, these contradictions make for a very dry and unnecessarily lengthy read. Much of O'Brien's novel is, in fact, repetition and contradiction.

The Things They Carried seems more of a memoir than fiction, but I'll have to take Tim O'Brien's word for it. The book is used in college classrooms today, despite fading generational interest in Vietnam. Why? Because it's neither a polemic nor a glorification of the warrior's dilemmas within the fog of war. O'Brien lays details out there and you make of them what you will. That's the true test of a classic, and of a warrior's integrity. In my mind, this book is both - a warrior's classic.

Here is one of the most amazing books I've ever read. Reads like a tough memoir but also like excellent literary fiction, and shares many a profound insight about war, courage, human nature, truth, trust, friendship, and a hundred other deep topics.

What makes this all the more interesting is the variety of stories O'Brien tells, some read like Chekovian sketches, others like the best of Andre Dubus in a grittier setting. My favorite, How to Tell a True War Story, explores the ironies and absurdities of war in so many ways -- how war changes the combat soldier, how it creates deprivation and desire, how it is both unspeakably ugly and yet beautiful to behold at the same time. Only someone who has been there and experienced these things can write with the authority O'Brien displays here.

This should be required reading in high schools and colleges across the land. Ten stars!

My advice to anyone who loves great books -- read this book right now. it is quite simply everything i would want literature to be. this book has helped shaped for me what to expect from books.

a seamless combination of memoir & short stories, this book is o'brien's account of his experience in vietnam. it is told with such honesty and rawness that the emotion is sometimes overwhelming.