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Product Description
Product Description
A sequence of stories about the Vietnam War, this book also has the unity of a novel, with recurring characters and interwoven strands of plot and theme. It aims to summarize America's involvement in Vietnam, and her coming to terms with that experience in the years that followed.
From the Back Cover
"'The Things They Carried' is a thrilling and beautiful distillation of everything that has been thought, felt, or said about the Vietnam war and its long afterburn. A heartbreaking and healing masterpiece; time will make it a classic."
MICHAEL HERR, author of 'Dispatches'
"O'Brien writes superbly. One of the best war books of this century, an unflinching attempt to illuminate both its obscene physical brutality and the terrible mental overload."
GUARDIAN
"This marvellous book…there are few novels of this brilliant kind. Here every sentence proclaims that war does not so much contain horrors as is horror itself."
RUTH RENDELL, 'Sunday Telegraph'
"The war story in O'Brien's hands is brilliant, extraordinarily sophisticated and moving, restless, lucid and decidedly slippery."
SUNDAY TIMES
"Essential… he captures the war's pulsating rhythms and nerve-racking dangers… a stunning performance. The overall effect of these original tales is devastating."
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The first thing that grabbed me about O'Brien's collection of short stories about the Vietnam war, was the stark realism. This is an exploration of the human condition rather than a war story per se. O'Brien's prose is lathered with irony and a distinct sense of hopelessness pervades his eloquent narrative. Emotions are laid bare, and the psychological turmoil caused by the war itself are presented with veracity and aplomb. This is realism of the highest order. Simply brilliant
billy proctor
sunderland
billy proctor
sunderland
35 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Things They Carried was written several years after O'Brien was a 'grunt' there. It's written consciously retrospectively, and as such, it's not autobiography; rather, it's a distillation of his experiences before, during, and since Vietnam. Paradoxically, O'Brien making (fictionalised) stories of what he and others witnessed makes the experience more 'true' than just retelling them. Truth for him is faithfully reproducing sensation and emotion in a reader, not retelling events chronologically or even logically; Primo Levi's famous quotation about Anne Frank came to mind. O'Brien is interested in the impact war has on *love*, not just *life*, and that's the genius of this work: it's a love story about Vietnam. I've read it a dozen times now and it still makes me want to cry and rejoice all at the same time.
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
THE THINGS THEY CARRIED is a powerful memoir in the form of a collection of short stories about the haunting life of Tim O'Brien and a company of soldiers in Vietnam.
The Things They Carried was a thought-provoking and inspirational book. This highly vivid description of the Vietnam War kept me reading through the night until the last page. I am not a big reader but once I picked up this book I was reading for hours! This book gives a taste of Vietnam for those who were not there. The interesting thing about this book is that it tells the true life of the soldiers giving us a better idea of what the soldiers went, and what war really is. One comes close to understanding how the feelings from going to war, leaving their families behind them, losing loved friends, killing another man, and how the pathetic nature of the foods and sleeping conditions; all traumas of war that can change a human being forever.
The Things They Carried was a thought-provoking and inspirational book. This highly vivid description of the Vietnam War kept me reading through the night until the last page. I am not a big reader but once I picked up this book I was reading for hours! This book gives a taste of Vietnam for those who were not there. The interesting thing about this book is that it tells the true life of the soldiers giving us a better idea of what the soldiers went, and what war really is. One comes close to understanding how the feelings from going to war, leaving their families behind them, losing loved friends, killing another man, and how the pathetic nature of the foods and sleeping conditions; all traumas of war that can change a human being forever.
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A beautiful and haunting piece of war fiction
In 'The Things They Carried' O'Brien takes us to a period of history and an event that only men of a certain age and nationality will ever experience, the US invasion of Vietnam,... Read more
Published 3 months ago by R. A. Davison
Be aware - this is not the Full book!
While I'm sure the book itself is excellent, this item which you are directed to on clicking on the Kindle edition option is not the book itself, but rather a three page critique... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr I Price
"Some dumb thing happens a long time ago and you can't ever forget...
... is a quote from O'Brien's daughter, Kathleen, in the story "Field Trip." Kathleen had just turned 10, and O'Brien had taken her back to Vietnam, to show her where her dad had... Read more
Published 17 months ago by John P. Jones III
wonderful working of this subject
This book is rather haunting, I have to admit that i struggled with "Going after..." as it was too surreal, but this book captures reality and surreality in equal measures and... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Sean Slippers
Excellent
This is simply one of the best stories about war that I have read. Brilliantly written, moving, utterly plausible, 'The Things They Carried' is a story of a group of young... Read more
Published 21 months ago by BookWorm
WOW
A very picky, hard-to-impress male friend recommended this to me so I knew it had to be good. It's not exactly what you think it'll be - rather than a novel about the Vietnam War... Read more
Published on 18 Nov 2009 by Mrs Gene Hunt
The things they carried
Brilliant book. Really conveys the tragedy of the generation of young Americans who where unfortunate enough to be sent to fight in Vietnam. Read more
Published on 16 Aug 2009 by Bartosz Balczerski
Five Stars and and Purple Hearts for O'Brien
Harrowing and shockingly beautiful. O'Brien is a heroic writer without peers. I adore this book.
Published on 14 Aug 2009 by Flibertigibbit
The Things They Carried
`The Things They Carried' is a book about the Vietnam war that is both profoundly moving and emotionally devastating. Read more
Published on 4 Feb 2009 by Spider Monkey
Possibly one of the very best...
A truly, truly remarkable collection of short stories. I am not generally a short story reader, but the title so intrigued me I had to give it a go. I was stunned. Read more
Published on 25 Feb 2008 by R. J. Ellory
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