The things they carried

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.

Most military history I've read tried to tell the "real historical events" as close to the truth as the author could get.

The things they carried isn't a true history, it's a true story of what it felt like to be in Nam and to Return from Nam.

It's power is in telling the stories soldiers tell, not in finding out if those stories are historically true.
In this manner we learn about the soldiers as they were when they told these stories rather than about a particular historical event.

If you like honest, thoughtfully written writing about war, this is an instant classic. It is a classic work on Vietnam, and I would never argue that it is not a superb piece of writing. I was just so glad when the book was over. I hate reading about war. I hate that it inspires so much writing. I don't want to explore the dark side of humanity, because awareness of the horror of war doesn't appear to change anything. That being said, this book is not polemical, and the author does not have any answers, that is left to the reader. It is a narrative of a war experience that is completely subjective, and it left me heavy and sad.

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)