273 pages
English language
Published Dec. 13, 1990 by Houghton Mifflin.
The Things They Carried (1990) is a collection of linked short stories by American novelist Tim O'Brien, about a platoon of American soldiers fighting on the ground in the Vietnam War. His third book about the war, it is based upon his experiences as a soldier in the 23rd Infantry Division.
The Things They Carried is a book about war, but it is also a book of how we use the medium of story to deal with the choices we make, and the actions we take. Tim O’Brien’s stories are powerful and difficult, but they create meaning out of chaos, through them one finds new ways to understand painful experiences, they are stories that heal.
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.
Having some experience of carrying things, but no experience of war, this book felt like it carried me from one almost to the other. It's also a meta book, where the stories of writing the stories turn each one into a living thing.
Filled with true war stories.
"The Things The Carried" (or, "3TC" as my AP Literature teacher used to abbreviate it,) is the absolutely genius novel penned by Tim O'Brien, Vietnam war vet and author extraordinaire. This engrossing post-modern commentary on the Vietnam war is unbelievably intense, as is its dark and violent subject-matter. While O'Brien says he stretches and exaggerates some of the details--creating a "work of fiction"--"The Things They Carried" is still an undoubtedly scathing response to the idiocy of war, and the internal repercussions it can cause.
Enjoyable and quick read
What parts were true, and which were not? What is truth? What is literal truth, as opposed to literary truth?
No one 'enjoyed' the book, but everyone was fascinated by it. On one level was O'Brien's game-playing, teasing the reader with truth and tales. But there was also the attempt to explain the Vietnam experience, no not to explain, but to get the reader to feel it on a visceral level. (Ruth Ann, from the other book club, showed up, after reading the book on tape)
