The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried is an excellent companion to Ken Burns's documentary, The Vietnam War, in which Tim O'Brien is one of the many contributors. It is categorized as a work of fiction...a series of stories about being a foot soldier in Vietnam, which O'Brien was. I think the line between fact and fiction is very very blurry here, but I have no doubt that all of it is True. O'Brien plays around with the concept of truth in fiction within the text; he tells the same story from different perspectives, often repeating certain "facts" like a mantra, or as if the narrator is attempting to settle the "truth" of the matter in his own mind in a way he can live with. He presents certain chapters as direct address to the reader ("here's why I show more told that story that way"), but are those real/factual, or just also True? There is no shying away from the grim, unimaginable horrors of that particular war; the things clean-cut American kids (many of them teenagers, can we please never never never forget that?) did there that defy their upbringing are spelled out in graphic prose. The things that they suffered and endured and died from, the lies they were told and the other lies they told themselves or their loved ones, the physical torment they learned to live with, and the mental anguish that eventually did some of them in are all in there. And yet the overall effect of The Things They Carried isn't depressing or horrifying at all. It's a brilliant piece of writing, with flashes of pure poetry, and an interesting structure. The sum is quite inexplicably beautiful. Highly recommended. show less

My dad served in Vietnam, but fortunately, he did not have the kind of experience depicted in The Things They Carried. I grew up hearing stories from his time over there, but Tim O’Brien’s stories are very different—raw, tragic, and deeply emotional. This book offers a powerful look into the psychological weight soldiers carry, both during war and long after it ends.

It was a good, often heartbreaking read that helped me better understand what some soldiers endure and how they try to hold on to their humanity, memories, and pain. O'Brien’s storytelling can be nonlinear and at times difficult to follow, but in the context of trauma and memory, that style actually makes sense.

Parts of the book were tough to get through emotionally, show more but I feel this is an important read—especially for those who want a deeper understanding of war's lasting impact. While it’s not an easy book, it’s a necessary one.

Thank you to every soldier who has served and fought for our country. God bless you all. show less

o'brien intermittently describes himself as a liberal throughout this novel, dedicating a chapter to his reaction to having been drafted—his utter horror at the prospect. he details the trance-like state in which he resolved to flee north towards canada, where he took refuge at an old man's cabin rental. their week-long acquaintance reached its zenith when o'brien's benefactor quietly took him fishing further north, beyond the canadian border, only meters away from the freedom he thought he wanted. the staunchly anti-war youth who wore his education and liberal sensibilities like a shield against the call of duty broke down and was overcome with visions of people from his hometown and the soldiers he'd come to know, either beckoning show more him towards or away from canada. this segment was what warmed me up to this book, as it fell in line with a confession o'brien later makes—that telling the truth isn't necessary when telling an effective story, and that most of the accounts he relays are not true. real "war stories", he said, lack morals and sense; war isn't just hell, but a conduit for feeling every bit of aliveness that one can, although overwhelmingly negative. his intellectual liberal outlook is battered by the realities of the war, his complicity inevitable yet damning all the same. o'brien's declaration that he thought himself too good to participate in such a war yet brought to his knees at the prospect of being shamed by everyone he knew had he dodged the draft is one of many pivotal and chilling realities he recounts; all of which point to the most educated and anti-war humans suddenly finding themselves in the throes of the jungle, surrounded by children armed to the teeth and at least passively participating in needless atrocities. it's easy to condemn american veterans for getting caught up in imperialist campaigns at the expense of their humanity so that they can earn a living and a camaro when they return home (rip hellcats), but the stinging reality is that these, too, are people struggling financially and uneducated about the harm they present to humanity when they enlist after being enticed by recruiters at high schools with promises of a lucrative career and a path towards lifelong stability. as easy as it is to call cops and soldiers evil, the truth is that they're stupid and evil because their country demands that from them; morals they haven't had the opportunity to develop because of a deprivation of education and more immediate concerns like food and security gnaw at them. all the same, i've considered these dilemmas before and have adopted the opinion that i'd still rather have contempt for veterans than understanding, though a level of pity is involved. o'brien is certainly not in favor of the war, yet he acknowledges and has had to contend with his presence and complicity in it. an account where he mentions a fellow soldier blowing up and another growing moody and vengeful is concluded with his thoughts on women who tell him how affected they were by his recollection; the bitterness he feels about their pity and emotional response to a story he might as well have made up. he recognizes that he shouldn't have been there to live that story, yet he understandably is bitter that the experience is treated as an abstract and necessarily evocative story. i was gripped by o'brien's brand of honesty and recollection throughout the novel, but the ending really did it for me. he details his first experience with death at nine years old—his girlfriend, linda, who had a brain tumor. it is a death that is received in all its tragedy, at too ripe an age to handle, yet just in time to prepare him for the casual nature of death come wartime about a decade later. the capacity for grief that he has as a child is just right; it's enough to make him appreciate linda's humanity and the seemingly infinite value her life held for the rest of his life, but isn't consuming enough to devoid himself of the capacity to feel anything beyond a desire to escape the ceaseless roar of guilt and trauma that comes with death in war. understanding his appreciation for having experienced such a tragic death, i was moved to tears by this concluding segment. it's most likely because i've also lost someone who means the world to me—who was the same age and gender as linda—but i have to give o'brien credit for humanizing veterans who were people before they were soldiers. show less

In this novel, the author’s beautiful writing brings alive his service as a soldier in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He shares closely-held fears, funny stories, horrible experiences, personal philosophies, and soldier-to-soldier conversations. It presents a good balance of wartime’s bad and the ugly with the not-so-expected love and beauty. The author exquisitely expresses his universal ideas about war. Psychological realities of becoming, being, and having been a wartime soldier are keenly described.

For some readers, the book presents itself as a collection of stories. For me, it works well as a novel because it had me thinking of the author as the protagonist. As he recalls his youth, he remembers his call to the draft, show more his years of service in Viet Nam, his buddy’s post war return to civilian life, and even a sweet love of his young childhood. Although the time skips around, that is how our memories work--with no set chronology as to what we remember or in what order. In remembering, our minds sometimes turn fact into fiction and vice versa. O’Brien uses this blend of fact and fiction to makes his war stories truly memorable. show less

I'd never read Tim O'Brien before or any books about the Vietnam war but if I had to recommend a book about the awfulness of war, this is the one I'd probably recommend. The writing is powerful and thought-provoking. Here's what he wrote about being dead, greatly condensed of course, "Once you're alive, ... you can't ever be dead." As long as someone is telling stories about you, or talking about you, or thinking about you, you're not dead. "But when I am (dead), it's like ... I don't know, I guess it's like being inside a book that nobody's reading. ... An old one. It's up on a library shelf, so you're safe and everything, but the book hasn't been checked out for a long, long time. All you can do is wait. Just hope somebody'll pick it show more up and start reading." I really like that thought and I really liked this book. show less

This book was so full: feelings and escapism, smutty and sublime, truth and story. It manages to tell every soldier's experience of the Vietnam War. I felt inspired by his honesty at the same time he assures us it is all a story. At one point he relates his 9-yr old daughter asking if he had ever killed anyone in Vietnam, and his response was that he would lie rather than shatter her innocence. That made me upset enough that I seriously wanted to find a way to write to him about how important it is to tell children about the reality of war, that she was aware enough at that age to understand killing happens (or she wouldn't have asked the question), and his child deserves the respect of an honest answer. Then I read another chapter in show more which he says it didn't happen that way at all--it was another story.
O'Brien also has a lot to say about the value of writing and stories, surely a topic of interest for any librarian. show less

“The things they carried were largely determined by necessity.”

That first chapter... wow! Really, the whole book, but the first chapter really stood out for me! Not a 'fun' read, but an important one! The author really drew me into the war in Vietnam, and made everything alive, even those who weren't. I felt at times that I was with the guys -Kiowa, Lavender, Lemon and the author himself. Though I'm very glad that I wasn't.

“Once people are dead, you can’t make them undead.”