"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.