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Summary: good book
Review: The Things They Carried is especially insightful and meaningful in that it brings the reader to a deeper understanding of the feelings and thoughts of the thousands of soldiers "humping though the bush." Through this powerful exhibit of literary talent, Tim O'Brien establishes a point: everyone in Vietnam, from general to infantryman, has their own story to tell about the harsh and horrific experience of the Vietnam war. While reading this book, the reader can feel that Vietnam has changed these soldiers (including himself) as people. He seems almost angry in the book and curious as to why he was sent to fight a war he did not understand. On the other hand, O'Brien seems to be thankful for the war, and happy to be writing about it. "I'm skimming across the surface of my own history, moving fast, riding beneath the blades, doing loops and spins, and when I take a high leap into the dark and come down thirty years later, I realize it is as Tim trying to save Timmy's life with a story." O'Brien uses this book as both an outlet for his extreme emotional trauma and an attempt to bring people to a better understanding as to what the soldiers experienced. He wants us to view the war from all angles, including the Vietnamese lifestyle which the soldiers infiltrated and partly destroyed. He exemplifies great use of the English language to describe the settings that he lived through everyday in the war. This book captures the human heart while boggling the human mind. It touches the soul but saddens the spirit. It portrays only one of the thousands of first hand experiences in a violent and gruesome war. -wong-
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Summary: The Things They Carried
Review: The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien is a collection of war stories told by Mr. O'Brien himself, while the stories themselves are very interesting, repetitions of certain words and/or phrases do make the book annoying at some points, such as in the first chapter 'The Things They Carried' the repetition of the word 'carried.' It does get the point across about what the soldiers carried, but after a while it's unbearable. Another example of repetitions is in the chapter 'ambush.' The author continually repeats about the condition of the young mans body. Aside from this, the book is quite intriguing. It offers a first hand experience of what it was like to be a grunt in the Vietnam war. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves to hear tales about interesting characters in terrifying situations.
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Summary: The Things They Carried - A Review by Ben Scharlach
Review: I've seen movies regarding the Vietnam War, read about it in my history books, but neither make it come alive as Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. The struggles he has with himself, and his comrades is only one of the threads that makes the fabric for this book. Another is a concept of making something seem real as opposed to telling the truth. A story teller can put his or her spin on stories to keep its audience captivated. O'Brien does just this. What may make it irritating is we don't know which stories are fact, and which are fiction. On the other hand, what we do know is that the characters were real, their emotions are real.
Towards the end of the book, the author conveys one of the best messages I've ever been exposed to. He says that people don't only live on in memories, but also stories. To O'Brien, the way he keeps his lost friends are by writing about them, and telling their stories. Though physically, they're dead, their stories come back to life as each reader goes through the book. This form of writing, unfortunatly, is very rare. I hope you choose to read The Things They Carried and enjoy it as much as I have.
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Summary: haunted
Review: i hate war stories. luckily this is not one. but it is a love story. one that just happens to take place during the vietnam war. but not a real love story, just the most incredible and disturbing one i've ever encountered. as for o'brien, i'm not sure if this work was as cathartic and revealing for him as it was alarming for me. possibly the most personally important work i've ever read.
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Summary: A Unique war book
Review: Unlike many war books, this is not a documentary. It is more of a collaberation of short stories, which are all woven together excellently, even though they cover different subjects, pre-war all the way to post-war. Throughout the book, Tim O'Brien challenges us with sayings that apply even today. One that stands out in my mind is this: "Men killed, and died, because they embarrased not to." Through his quotes and passages, O'Brien convey's what the soldiers really carried through the war. Sorrow, pain, remorse, fear, worry, thoughts of home, all these clouded the minds of the many Vietnam soldiers and weighed them down more than anything they physically carried. It was altogether different then what I was expecting. O'Brien wove his stories together with amazing elegance and kept the book interesting. It was a fast read and rarely repetive.
Overall, I think it was an excellent book, and would recommend it.
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Summary: Not Like Other War Books
Review: If you are turned off by war books and think they're all the same, you have another thing coming with this book. O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" is creatively put together and is a book where there is more to read between the lines. If you feel you don't want to buy this book 'cause you think it's like the rest, I suggest that you buy it and take the time to read it. It's an unforgettable novel and it's definitely worth your time.
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Summary: How He carried The Things They Carried
Review: Tim O'Brien's style is not only remarkably fluent in nature but also loaded with a brand of uniquely understated soldier-anxst. The emotion, thought filling every letter is so subtle that the book can be moving without being melodramatic or sentimental. Though it is essentially a book about Human reaction to trauma and complexity of combat situtations in Vietnam, it deals with the forbidden parts of the soldier's experiences. It addresses the onset of numbness that follows the death of a comrade in violent and urgent circumstances and the vulgarity with which combat must be addressed. However, even the vulgarity is subtle and realistically placed so that each character seems to be completely human and representative of the average man in combat. This remarkable novel displays a twist in persepctive that is both interesting and shocking to the reader, as it removes emphasis on the self and yet slyly retains it. Of the fictitious Vietnam literature I have read, Tim O'Brien's is the only brand that pierces me like a round in the head and puts a crater in my chest even years after having finished the novel. It drops me bare-butt in Vietnam, naieve and unprepared, like the men who experienced first-hand the brutal and unnatural nature of the war. I re-read it every year and its bitter-sweet subtle irony throws me in with the men in the book every time.
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Summary: haunting and powerful
Review: I was just talking about this book with a friend the other day. Had to read it for a class in college and turned out being one of those surprising blessings in my life. O'Brien is a gifted writer. He could write about moldy bread and I would be transfixed. But he isn't writing about bread, he's writing about war, something much more intense. I think he takes this difficult subject down some dark new paths. It's an atypical approach to a typical subject. The part where the narrator considers running to Canada after he is drafted is one great instance of O'Brien's superior writing ability and approach. He is in a boat on a lake that borders Canada. He can go back to the States, or he can make a swim for it to "freedom." He imagines nearly everyone he ever has known and what they would say. The book was very touching, especially considering I was 19 (ripe draft age) when I read those words. But no matter who you are, you know somebody who is draft age. Maybe it's your brother. Or your son. Or you. But you'll be able to make this story very personal and REAL regardless, and that's quite a feat. This is very powerful writing.
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Summary: a student's view
Review: first of all, i would like to make note of the fact that i generally dislike anything related to war, be it book, movie, or whatever. when i recieved my assignment for ap literature a few weeks ago, i was a little disappointed to learn that i had to read a book about Vietnam. i pretty much picked it up already thinking that it was going to be grotesque, sick and utterly horrible. it is grotesque in some parts. it is sick in some parts. but utterly horrible, it is not. this book... it's hard to place the feelings caused by it into words. the stories Tim O'Brien tells in this book are truly amazing. it offers a first-handed, sometimes second-handed, view into what went on in Vietnam and what it was like to be a soldier there. i admit that there were several times when i had to pause in my reading and set the book aside and just stare out the window because the tales were so intense and startling to read... several of them disturbed me deep down. i always picked up the book again, though, and not only because i have to read it for my class. i picked it up again because it is so well written, there is so much emotion and feeling placed into this book, so much reality, as well as falsity. true war stories mixed with those of uncertain origin. "Oh." i truly recommend this book to everyone. whether you are a student like me, a veteran, or just a normal citizen; whether you are a fanatic about war or a pacifist, you will enjoy this book. it is very well written and powerful.
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Summary: The Things They Carried
Review: This book will provide an insight to the mind of a young soilder and what makes him create his responses to later life events. The style of the book will have constantly looking at the front and doubting that it is indeed a work of fiction.
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