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The Things They Carried | 
 enlarge | Author: Tim O'brien
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Rating:  708 reviews
Sales Rank: 1409
Media: Paperback
Pages: 272
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 0767902890
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780767902892
ASIN: 0767902890
Publication Date: December 29, 1998
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Amazon.com Review
I"They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing--these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight. They carried shameful memories. They carried the common secret of cowardice.... Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to."/Ip A finalist for both the 1990 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, IThe Things They Carried/I marks a subtle but definitive line of demarcation between Tim O'Brien's earlier works about Vietnam, the memoir IIf I Die in a Combat Zone/I and the fictional IGoing After Cacciato/I, and this sly, almost hallucinatory book that is neither memoir nor novel nor collection of short stories but rather an artful combination of all three. Vietnam is still O'Brien's theme, but in this book he seems less interested in the war itself than in the myriad different perspectives from which he depicts it. Whereas IGoing After Cacciato/I played with reality, IThe Things They Carried/I plays with truth. The narrator of most of these stories is "Tim"; yet O'Brien freely admits that many of the events he chronicles in this collection never really happened. He never killed a man as "Tim" does in "The Man I Killed," and unlike Tim in "Ambush," he has no daughter named Kathleen. But just because a thing never happened doesn't make it any less true. In "On the Rainy River," the character Tim O'Brien responds to his draft notice by driving north, to the Canadian border where he spends six days in a deserted lodge in the company of an old man named Elroy while he wrestles with the choice between dodging the draft or going to war. The real Tim O'Brien never drove north, never found himself in a fishing boat 20 yards off the Canadian shore with a decision to make. The real Tim O'Brien quietly boarded the bus to Sioux Falls and was inducted into the United States Army. But the truth of "On the Rainy River" lies not in facts but in the genuineness of the experience it depicts: both Tims went to a war they didn't believe in; both considered themselves cowards for doing so. Every story in IThe Things They Carried/I speaks another truth that Tim O'Brien learned in Vietnam; it is this blurred line between truth and reality, fact and fiction, that makes his book unforgettable. I--Alix Wilber/I
Product Description
One of the first questions people ask about bThe Things They Carried/b is this: Is it a novel, or a collection of short stories? The title page refers to the book simply as "a work of fiction," defying the conscientious reader's need to categorize this masterpiece. It is both: a collection of interrelated short pieces which ultimately reads with the dramatic force and tension of a novel. Yet each one of the twenty-two short pieces is written with such care, emotional content, and prosaic precision that it could stand on its own.brbrbThe Things They Carried/b depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and of course, the character Tim O'Brien who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. They battle the enemy (or maybe more the idea of the enemy), and occasionally each other. In their relationships we see their isolation and loneliness, their rage and fear. They miss their families, their girlfriends and buddies; they miss the lives they left back home. Yet they find sympathy and kindness for strangers (the old man who leads them unscathed through the mine field, the girl who grieves while she dances), and love for each other, because in Vietnam they are the only family they have. We hear the voices of the men and build images upon their dialogue. The way they tell stories about others, we hear them telling stories about themselves. brbrWith the creative verve of the greatest fiction and the intimacy of a searing autobiography, bThe Things They Carried/b is a testament to the men who risked their lives in America's most controversial war. It is also a mirror held up to the frailty of humanity. Ultimately bThe Things They Carried/b and its myriad protagonists call to order the courage, determination, and luck we all need to survive.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 703 more reviews...
 An Entertaining and Enlightening Introduction to Story Telling November 30, 2008
J. Copeland
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Sections of this book were assigned to me as coursework. What I read was so entertaining that I immediately purchased the book and had read and reread it within a weekend. I admit that I'd not have seen the depth of O'Brien's true literary genius had my professor not shed light on some of the subtle issues addressed herein (i.e. the retelling of The Lemon Tree story as a portrait of literary progression through history, etc.). Still, even without an appreciation of or interest in top quality literature, the interested reader will find great insight into character and plot development within this literary masterpeice. br /Be warned though that this story is not a historical account of a soldier's horrific experience in Vietnam. Instead, the author's experience in Vietnam is used to illustrate the true purpose of the piece: how a story teller accurately transmits a message to the audience. To all of those who criticize this book as being poorly written because of its historical inaccuracies, I kindly paraphrase the author's own words: you obviously weren't listening. br /
 never even received product November 23, 2008
A. Chauran (san diego, ca)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
i never even received what i ordered, which i had gotten from know hope auctions or something like that. i had to go to border's and buy it because i needed it for school. and the best part is i still got charged for it. br / br /very disappointing.
Inaccurate, misleading, and confusing November 20, 2008
Hugh Jass (Albany, New York USA)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
br / br / Books are usually written a certain way; with a plot, set characters, conflicts, et cetera. The way Tim O'Brien portrays his story, The Things They Carried, is different than most books and his incorporation of truth and fiction tend to throw the reader off. Tim O'Brien constantly contradicts himself throughout the novel, and continually tells the reader that he or she won't be able to comprehend what he is trying to explain. br / My first point I would like to present is the book is full of fabrication. Right away, before the book even begins, on the copyright page, it clearly states, "This is a work of fiction. Except for a few details regarding the author's own life, all the incidents, names, and characters are imaginary." How is the reader supposed to differentiate between reality and O'Brien's stories when right off the bat we are told that a good majority of the book is a falsehood? br /The second thing I would like to point out is that Tim O'Brien openly tells us that the book is a lie, and he will tell us these stories in hope that we might understand what he went through. Though he expects us to understand even when he doesn't tell us the difference between "story-truth" and "happening-truth". Tim O'Brien provides us with the chapter Good Form that blatantly tells that the whole book is a falsehood. The author says "I'm forty-three years old, true, and I'm a writer now, and a long time ago I walked through Quang Ngai Province as a foot soldier. Almost everything else is invented." As a reader, this unlocked emotion such as frustration because it felt like you were being deceived, and to find out the whole thing was made up really bewilders you. When this information is revealed, you are already a good deal through he book, and then to find out that the stories are just imaginary makes you ask yourself, what was the point of reading this then? br /Also, the way to novel is perpetrated also perplexes the reader. The story is very jumbled and doesn't follow or keep up with itself. In my opinion, there are pointless stories being told in the novel, stories that irrelevant to telling a war story. I didn't find this book favorable, especially in the inconsistency of the tales. br /I also wonder why O'Brien would want to publish this novel. Even though the characters were false and probably a lot of the stories he told were false as well, there are just some stories that were embarrassing. For example, the chapter The Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong is a chapter about a man expressing negative qualities while trying to keep a relationship with his girlfriend. The chapter only shows the man's bad side in expressing his paranoia and desperation. Also, in one of the last chapters, The Lives of the Dead, it tells a tale of O'Brien's love for a nine-year-old girl. He claims that it was "as deep and rich as love could get" (pg. 228). When he is explaining his love for this girl, I just couldn't help but feel that the author was kind of sketchy, and even though this story might not actually be true, it gives the reader a strange view of the author. I one hundred percent believe that it is impossible for nine-year olds to fall in love. br / I think it's fair to say that a good majority of the class wasn't able to comprehend the point of the book, especially since none of us have fought in a war. Not only were non-veterans dissatisfied with this book, but also actual Vietnam War veterans had problems with it. One customer from an amazon.com review writes, "I thought the book was well written and interesting and all that. But speaking as a Vietnam vet, 1st Cav., Medivac, the only thing I can say is that the book just wasn't like what I really saw". Another customer responds to the book, "As a veteran of almost four years in Viet-Nam, I was very disappointed by the book in its attempts to say, in effect, `Look how sensitive I am; Oh, I am such a sensitive caring person.'" This clearly demonstrates this book wasn't an accurate account of what happened, or what it was supposed to feel and look like. br / In conclusion, I think The Things They Carried was a book full of lies that we could never understand. I acknowledge that some truth is incorporated into this story, but the book is confusing and misleading, and might lead to people getting their facts wrong about Vietnam. The way it was written made it even more difficult for the reader to follow along. I may be ignorant to what actually happened during the Vietnam war and what the soldier's experienced, but I think a more realistic depiction of the war would have a more profound effect on the people who would happen to pick this book up. br / br / br / br /
O'Brien Cuts To the Core Of Our Fragile Lives November 12, 2008
Scott William Foley (Illinois)
In The Things They Carried, Vietnam veteran Tim O'Brien called upon his own wartime experiences, labeled them as fiction, and wrote one of the most emotionally potent books I've ever read. br / br /It's irrelevant to me how much of O'Brien's book "really happened" because O'Brien's words and stories in The Things They Carried deeply touched me. O'Brien wrote simply, but effectively. He tapped into real emotion and conveyed those emotions skillfully. With each and every short that made up a larger story with The Things They Carried, I could picture myself clear as day in those very same situations. br / br /That's one benefit of calling this book fiction. Had O'Brien designated it nonfiction, I think each tale would have filtered through my knowledge this happened to O'Brien and registered as a "past event." But with it being called fiction, I could lose myself in the story and meld with it, become one with it, and see myself in it. It allowed me ownership that nonfiction does not. br / br /While O'Brien offers authentic knowledge on weaponry, tactics, and all things associated with being a wartime soldier, he focuses more deeply upon the human element. The Things They Carried perfectly captures what it is to be human in times of chaos, fear, and horror. He doesn't glorify or lionize the characters in his stories. He treats them as "real" (and perhaps they were), and he offers only the emotional truth. br / br /There are things in this book that chilled me to the bone. Not because it's overtly gory, but because O'Brien cuts to the core of our fragile lives. For instance, in one story a man dies after being sucked under mud during a mortar attack. But he doesn't write it from the dead man's perspective, he writes it first from the perspective of the man next to him, then from the perspective of the man pulling the body out of the mud the next day. Can you imagine? I assure you, you'll be able to imagine such a thing after reading The Things They Carried. And that's what makes this book so utterly effective. O'Brien forces you to put yourself in it, to experience it through his straightforward, transparent, and evocative words. br / br /I honestly only read this book because Tim O'Brien was coming to a local university and I was invited to attend a private reception for him. I'd never heard of the man and had to ask a few friends for suggestions before one knew O'Brien's work and told me to read The Things They Carried. So expertly rendered were O'Brien's words and so powerful was the raw emotional honesty in his book that O'Brien has secured me as a life-long reader. br / br /I strongly recommend you read The Things They Carried. br / br /~Scott William Foley, author of Souls Triumphant
Perfection November 9, 2008
Joe Snow (Seattle, WA)
Tim O'Brien is one of the greatest writers alive today. I think that his prestige and legacy will only grow as the genius of his works find a wider audience. br / br /The Things They Carried and Going After Cacciato make up the twin pillars of Vietnam literature. If you haven't read Going After Cacciato, please check it out. br / br /The Things They Carried is as much a mediation on the nature of truth as it is a war story. The major themes of the novel are the ways stories shift meaning with continuous retelling, and the ways in which our own lives are at the mercy of memory. A haunting, moving masterpiece.
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