Rating: 
Summary: great book
Review: This book was about a war, but Tim O'Brien wrote it in a way that the themes were universal. amazing book that helped me through a time of change myself. he really captured the perspective of an innocent young man who was forced to enlist into a dirty war that no one wanted to be in. he plays with the readers' mind about what is a true war story and what is not, which made me think twice about the book, but that itself was a good theme about what is real and what is not. great book, and i recommend that everyone reads it and fully take in the lessons.
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Summary: Even better the second time!
Review: I just taught this book for the first time to my 11th graders. They loved it as much as I did. O'Brien is able to write about war in a way that is very human, very truthful, and at times, very funny. His ability to tell stories is to be commended. I highly recommend this book!
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Summary: The True Art of Story Telling
Review: Tim O'Brian does a fantastic job capturing the essence of being in war. The things they carried is not only about the Vietnam War but also portrays the thoughts and emotions of a generation that was torn between the sentiments of traditional americanism and the torment of developing minds of thier own.
O'Brian gives his audience a glimpse of the issues that the young soldiers had to face on and off the battle fields. His descriptions make the audience empathize with every charactor. Tim O'Brian is a master of the true art of story telling.
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Summary: Unbelievable
Review: In order to find the words to describe this book, your writing abilities would have to be as unbelievable as Tim Obrien's, but I honestly doubt that there are many of you out there. No one is going to read this review any way, i just thought i had to play my part in spreading the word about one of the most well-written books to ever.
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Summary: Excellent Surprise
Review: I picked this book up not knowing anything about it. Consequently, I wasn't sure what to expect. I was very pleasantly surprised. The stories are all engaging and beautifully written. The authors doesn't use a lot of description, but he still paints a vivid picture of the horror that was Vietnam. The stories are revealing about what an ordinary soldier went through everyday. Even a person who isn't intersted in Vietnam, Me, can enjoy and take something away from the book. Highly recommended.
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Summary: My absolute most favoriteistististist book ever!
Review: I totally loved this book. It's so incredibly sad. But I liked the unconventional writing style. The way that O'Brien tells the story makes the reader almost feel the war experience and sense the atmosphere (even if it is presumptuous of me to say so). He doesn't simply tell the story in chronological order. For example, when one of his friends dies, he keeps on bringing it up subtly in off-hand references throughout the whole book...sort of like how if someone you know dies, it's not just a done-and-overwith one time event...it's always nagging your mind after. And O'Brien is amazing at creating atmosphere. He tells all these untrue stories that are essential to understanding how something SEEMED which is just as important as what actually happened. I also liked the format of the book. It's divided into these "chapters" i suppose...and as individual units, even though some are only 2 pages long, they just totally shock you and leave you with another lingering moving feeling in your chest(i.e. "Style"). And I also love the crazy non-sensical aspect of the book...nothing has to make sense. But its the one of the most amazing books that I have ever read. I strongly recommend it if you don't mind crying a little, being slightly confused/surprised, being awed, and trying something new.
Rating: 
Summary: A good vietnam read
Review: This was assigned by my school for summer reading, and it is quite a story; OK, a series of short stories. Tim O'Brien gives the expression of a war where what you think is not what happened. For example, in "The Man I Killed", O'Brien describes a corpse and the life of the man it used to be. "Ambush" describes O'Brien killing the man, and the remorse he felt. Then, in "Good Form", we learn that O'Brien did not truly kill the man; infact, the man did not exist. O'Brien explains that "Story Truth" and "Real Truth" are different things. The story isn't technically true, but it is more true then some real stories.Woah.
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Summary: One of the best
Review: I've been reading a lot of books about Viet Nam and war in general lately, trying to get a better understanding of what it was my father went through over there. This is one of the best. Tim O'Brien has an exceptional skill in describing how things felt to be there. The way he used the device of the title, the things the soldiers carried, and how he drew from that everything from the feeling of "humping it" through the jungle, to the baggage that many veterans had to carry back home with them, was just masterful. Books can only take one so far in understanding something as undescribable as what a soldier goes through in war, but I think Tim O'Brien has carried me about as far as possible with this book. I'm looking forward to reading more of his writing.
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Summary: stunning work
Review: I had high expectations for this book. The reviews are all good. Everyone who I know who's read this book has loved it and said it was great. The excerpts and stories from it I've read were great. The expectations were so high, I was afraid it would be another let down. But it wasn't. O'Brien's book is great (I've added it to my list of best books ever written). The Things They Carried is a series of related short stories that create a novel. They all concern Alpha Company, which is the fictional O'Brien's company in Viet Nam. (Just to take a moment to clarify here, this book is in the fiction section of book stores, and O'Brien calls it a work of fiction rather than a memoir. I don't know how autiobiographical the stories are, but until I hear Tim O'Brien say otherwise, I'm assuming it is a work of fiction) At times the stories narritive flow is in such a way that they could be chapters of a novel, and at other times the individual stories are outside one another (the final story of the collection 'The Lives of the Dead' has the narrator telling us, after the war, about something that happened to him when he was a child of nine year. It doesn't fit with the others action wise, but thematically it is a nice capstone to the collection). Overall these stories fit together nicely. Most are told in first person. A few in third. A few are first person, but O'Brien is listening to another member of Alpha Company telling him about an incident that happened when O'Brien wasn't around. The stories patch together in an interesting, original, and highly effective way. The book was a finalist for the Pulitzer (beat by Updike's Rabbit at Rest) and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and won France's Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger (Best Foreign Novel) and the Chicago Tribune's Heartland Prize (I can't believe it didn't win the Pulitzer or National Book Award). The stories appeared in Esquire, Playboy, GQ, 'The Things They Carried' appeared in the Best American Short Stories 1987, and two stories appeared in the Prize Stories, The O Henry Award anthologies: "Speaking of Courage: (1978) and "The Ghost Soldiers" (1982). All of the stories were great, but in a collection of great stories, two stuck out as phenomenal stories. "The Things They Carried" is the opening selection, and introduces us to the characters, Viet Nam, and O'Brien's talented writing and the great voice he uses to pull you into his fiction. "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" is an almost surreal story of one a soldier who was able to smuggle his girlfriend into Viet Nam. It's a haunted story that shows how Viet Nam changed people. And it has a surprise and disturbing ending. This is one of those truly great books, that only comes along once in a while. I've only read 30 or so books that I could place on par with this one (check out my 'Official Book Club' to see what else). This is a phenomenal piece of art.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Piece of Literature
Review: I like Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried even though his story is fictional and a collection of war stories. O'Brien puts much of his own emotion into the story. Some of his stories are funny, others are depressing, and some are even horrifying. He uses one of his stories to describe the loss of innocence and uses another story to explains that some Vietnam veterans did not know the purpose of their lives after the war.
O'Brien's book is different from most others because it lacks a plot and chronological order. O'Brien's book is effective because he knows how to captivate his readers. Most of his short stories force the reader to feel O' Brien's emotions and suffering. The author's book is a way of releasing his feelings of the Vietnam War. The Things They Carried is a beautiful piece of literature because Tim O'Brien wrote the book with all of his heart.
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