The Things They Carried

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've ever read
Review: Once you start reading this book, you can't put it down. It's interesting, humorous, sad, and extremely well-written. I guarantee this is one to remember!

Rating:
Summary: I actually rate this a 100! The best book I've ever read.
Review: O'Brien deftly blurs the line between reality and fiction by first reminding us that this book is a work of fiction and then telling us a story supposedly from his real life. Having read all of O'Brien's books except "Northern Lights," I have one question: when will this man win a Nobel Prize?

Rating:
Summary: The Things They Carried: How it struck me then and now.
Review: I read this book when I was a senior in high school and now that I am in the Air Force, I have read it again. It tells us about ourselves, and how we react to the truly "weird" things that happen in war. O'Brien has the ability, through his stories, to tell us his feelings, and show us our own.

Rating:
Summary: I'll always be carrying this book, that's for sure!!!
Review: A both entertaining and informative book by Tim O'Brien. It's actually a collection of loosely connected essays, and the revelation that the author makes at the culminating chapter is very intriguing. This book could very well be the first of a new literary genre. Tim O'Brien's is a very provocative raconteur and tell his stories with so much passion and elegance. I highly recommend this book to anyone. This book is both about the Vietnam War and about the relationships between fellow men

Rating:
Summary: Fact or fiction? Truth or untruth? Poetry or prose?
Review: It is hard to put a label on the contents of O'Brien'scollection of essays, short stories, personal reflections, anddescriptic narratives. Probably the best that I can come up with would be to say that this book embodies all the confusion, immaturity, fear, misdirection, uncertainty, and mortality that was the VietNam War. To read this book is to come away with a different perspective of the lines between fact and fiction, truth and untruth, and what it means to be alive. Read this book for a better understanding of the constant reminders that many of our fathers still deal with daily and the struggles they have overcome in getting us this far.

Rating:
Summary: Vietnam fact or fiction? Either way excellent.
Review: Fact or fiction? It's hard to tell. O'Brien claims it's fiction, then dedicates the book to his fictional characters. Haunting, scary, a book not only about the Vietnam War, but the nature of war and what it does to those who are made to fight it. I read this whilst in Vietnam two years ago, and every page rang true

Rating:
Summary: FICTION!!???
Review: This has to be the most non-fiction,fictitious book i've ever had the pleasure to read! A must read for every boonie humping V.N. vet. Let them decide if this is real, or not!

Rating:
Summary: An awesome book
Review: If you've never been a soldier, this book will make it real for you. If you've ever been an unwilling one, this book will bring tears to your eyes

Rating:
Summary: Wow.
Review: "The Things They Carried" is a phenomonal novel accurately depicting the feelings of so many soldiers during the Vietnam War. I personally enjoyed the book because Tim O'Brien kept you on your toes by constantly drifting in and out of reality. O'Brien wrote this book as a fictional story, but since he writes so vividly and is in fact a Vietnam Veteran, I was constantly wondering how fictional the book actually is. There is also a very interesting connection between the war and O'Brian's childhood which by the end of the story, leaves you with ultimate amazement as to how such a tragedy of Vietnam could ever occur. "The Things They Carried" is by far the greatest story of the Vietnam War ever written.

Rating:
Summary: From Bradley Bratcher, son of a Vietnam Vet
Review: For nearly my entire life, I knew the war had affected my father in an adeverse way. He was/is not an abusive individual and blames none of his failures on Vietnam, however it changed him internally and he has gradually come to grips with it. I had always wondered what it was that goes on through the mind of a man of my father's experience. I had never really known until I had read Mr. O'Brien's book. Now I have had a glimpse and see the source of what that has been the fuel of turmoil in my father's life for nearly the past thirty years. I am forever indebted to Mr. O'Brien for this partial understanding of how it is a man's can be altered in a year or less experience.