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A finalist for both the 1990 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Things They Carried marks a subtle but definitive line of demarcation between Tim O'Brien's earlier works about Vietnam, the memoir If I Die in a Combat Zone and the fictional Going After Cacciato, and this sly, almost hallucinatory book that is neither memoir nor novel nor collection of short stories but rather an artful combination of all three. Vietnam is still O'Brien's theme, but in this book he seems less interested in the war itself than in the myriad different perspectives from which he depicts it. Whereas Going After Cacciato played with reality, The Things They Carried plays with truth. The narrator of most of these stories is "Tim"; yet O'Brien freely admits that many of the events he chronicles in this collection never really happened. He never killed a man as "Tim" does in "The Man I Killed," and unlike Tim in "Ambush," he has no daughter named Kathleen. But just because a thing never happened doesn't make it any less true. In "On the Rainy River," the character Tim O'Brien responds to his draft notice by driving north, to the Canadian border where he spends six days in a deserted lodge in the company of an old man named Elroy while he wrestles with the choice between dodging the draft or going to war. The real Tim O'Brien never drove north, never found himself in a fishing boat 20 yards off the Canadian shore with a decision to make. The real Tim O'Brien quietly boarded the bus to Sioux Falls and was inducted into the United States Army. But the truth of "On the Rainy River" lies not in facts but in the genuineness of the experience it depicts: both Tims went to a war they didn't believe in; both considered themselves cowards for doing so. Every story in The Things They Carried speaks another truth that Tim O'Brien learned in Vietnam; it is this blurred line between truth and reality, fact and fiction, that makes his book unforgettable. --Alix Wilber

If you like war novels, then this is a must read. Even if you don't like war books and think they're all the same, read this and you will reconsider. One thing for sure is that you will appreciate the style of writing and the way it makes you think. You still get to laugh despite the deaths and destructions. The soldiers seem to taunt life with life and death games. Written with a deep message and in a manner similar to CHEKHOV AND TISI JANVIER, this anthology of related short stories about the Vietnam War portrays men who faced their fears, confronted danger, came out alive but became scarred for life.


Beautifully Written, Compelling, Disturbing...Don't Miss it!   June 27, 2005
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

They carried canteens, pictures, machine guns, love letters, mine detectors. But most importantly, they carried each other. The soldiers who fought in the Vietnam war that were lucky enough to make it home alive would struggle with the memories they carried as well. Tim O'Brien illustrates his cathartic re-entry into the jungles of Vietnam in this captivating -- indeed poignant -- collection of memories.

Many question whether "Things..." is a novel, considering the choppy, often non-chronological nature of the short stories which O'Brien tells. As the title page says, it is a work of fiction, but the book itself defies all categorization. Each chapter is a separate and individual memory that is so well written, it could successfully serve as a short story on its own. Together, however, they deliver an impact unlike any book I've ever read.

"Things..." made me question my hold on reality. It made me question my motives in life, my enemies, my friends, and the way I perceive the world in general. I have never been so moved by a book. I cried, I cringed in horror, I sat dumbfounded and slack-jawed, glued to each page. I read the book in one sitting.

If I were stranded on a desert island, as the hypothetical question begins, this is the one book I would take with me. It is not only about the Vietnam war, it is about life, about men who fight and die for love and out of innocence. It is about the enemy, or more importantly, the idea of the enemy. It is about friendship. It is about the loss of innocence. And it is about the innocence that may be recaptured through the retelling of stories. It is about the things we carry. A must-read book! But try it for yourself. Pick up a copy! Another book I need to recommend -- very much on my mind since I purchased a "used" copy off Amazon is "The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition," an engaging, highly entertaining little novel I can't stop thinking about.


Beautifully Written, Compelling, Disturbing...Don't Miss it!   May 8, 2005
They carried canteens, pictures, machine guns, love letters, mine detectors. But most importantly, they carried each other. The soldiers who fought in the Vietnam war that were lucky enough to make it home alive would struggle with the memories they carried as well. Tim O'Brien illustrates his cathartic re-entry into the jungles of Vietnam in this captivating -- indeed poignant -- collection of memories.

Many question whether "Things..." is a novel, considering the choppy, often non-chronological nature of the short stories which O'Brien tells. As the title page says, it is a work of fiction, but the book itself defies all categorization. Each chapter is a separate and individual memory that is so well written, it could successfully serve as a short story on its own. Together, however, they deliver an impact unlike any book I've ever read.

"Things..." made me question my hold on reality. It made me question my motives in life, my enemies, my friends, and the way I perceive the world in general. I have never been so moved by a book. I cried, I cringed in horror, I sat dumbfounded and slack-jawed, glued to each page. I read the book in one sitting.

If I were stranded on a desert island, as the hypothetical question begins, this is the one book I would take with me. It is not only about the Vietnam war, it is about life, about men who fight and die for love and out of innocence. It is about the enemy, or more importantly, the idea of the enemy. It is about friendship. It is about the loss of innocence. And it is about the innocence that may be recaptured through the retelling of stories. It is about the things we carry. A must-read book! But try it for yourself. Pick up a copy! Another book I need to recommend -- very much on my mind since I purchased a "used" copy off Amazon is "The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition," an engaging, highly entertaining little novel I can't stop thinking about.