When it comes to literature about the Vietnam War, Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried is the standard-bearer. A collection of interlinked short stories, it explores a platoon of soldiers before, during, and after their service in Vietnam. It's told through the perspective of a young solider, also named Tim O'Brien, who is not only a writer but specifically writing these stories, and as the book is rooted in author Tim O'Brien's own experiences with the war, it's all very meta, even including a short story about figuring out how to tell a war story. Though O'Brien's character is the most central one, he explores several other perspectives besides his own.

The central plot, such as there is one (which is loose at best and completely out of chronological order), tells the story of Tim O'Brien the character. When drafted to fight, he's afraid, and very nearly crosses the Canadian border to escape. Ultimately, though, he returns home and then is shipped off to Vietnam, where he joins a platoon, gets to know his fellow soldiers, and watches them kill and be killed. He is wounded a few times, the second of which is serious enough that he's removed from the fighting and taken to the hospital, and shortly thereafter goes back to the US. After the war, he and his fellow veterans struggle to make sense of their experiences. While Tim finds some level of solace in becoming a writer, others can't make the readjustment.

As in any collection of short stories, some are particularly strong and others are weaker. The title story, the first in the book, detailing the baggage both physical and emotional that the soldiers carry with them through the jungle, is the standout. I'm not much of a short story person, but this one is about as close to perfect as any I've ever read. The language, the characterization, the pacing, all of it is amazing. It's the perfect way to start things off. "On The Rainy River", which details Tim's flight to the Canadian border and near-crossing of it, is also beautiful and poignant. And "Speaking Of Courage", about one of Tim's platoon-mates who can't seem to figure out how to fit into the world again after the war, is absolutely heartbreaking. On the weirder side, "Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong", about an urban legends shared among the soldiers of a girlfriend who came over to visit and became more and more immersed in martial culture until she disappeared into the wild like a ghost, never to return, has compelling echoes of Heart of Darkness.

I will say that some of the more meta aspects of the book didn't quite work for me, like the "How to Tell a True War Story" piece that I mentioned earlier, as well as "Good Form", a story that reveals a previous story to have been told in a way that is factually incorrect but emotionally true. Though ultimately it didn't take away from the writing or its impact on me, I did wish the book was either straight fiction or straight nonfiction. That's a minor quibble, though. On the whole I thought this book was very well-executed and incredibly affecting. It gave me perspective into and empathy with the lives of those who have lived through something I never will, which honestly is one of the biggest points of reading for me. I would highly recommend this book for all readers. ( )

In an almost stream of consciousness, The Things They Carried chronicles O’Brien’s memories as he returns to Vietnam in 1994 – “now a 43-year-old writer.” His disparate, antithetical, sometimes rambling, and raw storytelling style is totally unique and thoroughly engaging. His thoughts, his writing (almost as if he jots down the first thing that pops into his head) the things he left in, and the things he left out kept me hooked – it’s not just the same old A to Z storyline (which is normally fine. It’s just not the way O’Brien does it, at least in this book).

In 1968, PFC O’Brien and his clan were grunts, part of an infantry battalion in Vietnam. And as grunts, everything they needed, they carried. WEIGHT mattered! There were some things, like a helmet, boots, and flak jacket that every soldier carried; there were things they might be assigned to carry, like a radio, or the M-60 machine gun, perhaps extra ammo, and four or five mortar rounds (ugh!); there were also personal things like chewing gum, a deck of cards, maybe pictures of a girl back home, that they wanted to carry; and then there were the things – HEAVY things – things they did not want, nor were ordered, to carry. Nonetheless, at war and at home, carry these things they did – and that’s what this book is about.

Of Breaking Bad fame, Brian Cranston’s narration is simply outstanding! In fact, I don’t think it could have been done better. Normally I’ll listen to the audiobook and read the e-book. Not this time! After listening for about two seconds, I no longer wanted to READ, I only wanted to LISTEN.

(Oh, almost forgot - there’s a 30-minute bonus at the end, one of O’Brien’s New York Times articles, that he it’s good, and it’s cool to hear O’Brien’s real, gravelly, nicotine-stained voice – but I’m glad he went with Cranston for the main act 😊)
reads – ( )

The Things They Carried is an emotionally engaging novel built out of twenty-two vignettes about the Vietnam War. The stories told feel familiar to anyone who has read or seen other fictional portrayals of that war: involuntary participants who endure pointless patrols, witness and suffer ironic deaths, and engage in senseless acts of violence and killing. What separates this book from those works is its metafictional aspect, in which the real author inserts himself as a fictional Tim O'Brien, one who both relates his experiences and comments on them twenty years later.

I am not overly fond of this trick. The fictive O'Brien's presence gives the novel a confusing memoir feel and—to me—needlessly interferes with the reality of the story—an ironic criticism, given that the narrator repeatedly discusses the truth of the untrue stories both he and the soldiers in his outfit tell, going so far as to assert that "absolute occurrence [of a true war story] is irrelevant."

There is a highly effective circularity within the stories; events (particularly deaths) are referred to in one, shown in another, analyzed in a third and fourth. The imagery of Vietnam is powerful: the jungle and night (really the darkness) as living beasts, the near-mythical elusiveness of the rarely seen enemy. At the center of these images is the shit field—literally a swamp created by the merging of the fecal runoff of an unnamed village with the overflowing Song Tra Bong river. The shit field is also figuratively the morass that was the Vietnam War, and O'Brien skillfully weaves these two roles together while telling of the death of a good friend during an overnight bivouac. After several soldiers reveal their own roles in Kiowa's death, the ultimate truth revealed is that all those claiming responsibility are indeed guilty, yet simultaneously none are.

The truest parts of this novel are the Vietnam experiences and their aftermaths. The one part I felt could have been omitted without impact was the concluding story about a childhood friend dying of a brain tumor when the author is ten. But overall, The Things They Carried delivers both the fictional and real O'Brien's stated goal of providing the reader with the feeling of the war, regardless of its truth. ( )

Without a doubt, one of the best that came from the soldier-writers who survived Vietnam. ( )

a question, a mystery presented to the reader right away but never answered. That is, are these stories true, biographical, or purely fiction? O’Brien’s intimate narration and total immersion into the horror and wonder-filled world he was thrown into as a young man make these stories of fiction seem utterly real. This work creates a suspension of disbelief for the reader that is arguably incomparable.

Tim O’Brien visited my university while I was an undergrad and during his speech he portrayed himself and his writing with the same moral relativism and “neutrality” is all too common in contemporary America. But in the same breathe he spoke in utter disbelief of how once a High school student told him that this book was what inspired him to join the Marines. O’Brien broke down crying after that.

A good book to show your older children great writing and the horror of war. ( )