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Summary: When I first read this book...
Review: I wept with the sudden glory of it.When I first read this book, I wept for the total despair of it. When I first read this book, I wept for the hope it gives. When I first read this book, I wept.
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Summary: One of O'Brien's Best
Review: Tim O'Brien shows why he is one of the truly great writers of the 20th century. Going After Cacciato is a masterfully written novel that works on so many different levels. O'Brien reveals the mental strain and the incredible toll of war by showing how Paul Berlin uses the imaginary journey after Cacciato to escape the day-to-day horrors that he experiences in Vietnam and come to terms with his feelings about them. O'Brien's use of psuedo-flashbacks gives the story a decidedly surreal feel. He flawlessly weaves detailed, eloquent descriptions of the land and actions with "grunt-speak" and harsh depictions of everyday horrors. The resulting mix is quintissential O'Brien and will keep you enthralled to the end. Not just a novel for war story fans, Going After Cacciato should be read by anybody who enjoys literature.
Rating: 
Summary: Four Stars for this "Hope"
Review: Going After Cacciato is a fiction novel of the Vietnam War. A group of soldiers tried to catch a run away soldier who filled with dream of going to Paris. Searched and followed behind him with the adventures, sadness, love, hope, and and understanding of people in different ways. The book confused me bacause an author set up a story that work back and forth, but I would recommend that you read this book since the main point of this book is to believe in hope.
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Summary: Gotta Find Cacciato
Review: I occasionally found this book difficult to follow, mainly because of the jumps in time. O'Brien uses flashback every other chapter, and the transitions are not always clear. And it was hard to tell whether Cacciato was some imaginary AWOL soldier (at least toward the end), rather than an actual man the soldiers were chasing. Moreover, I got confused when Berlin hooks up with Sarkin Aung Wan, and she accompanies the men for hundreds of miles to Paris. Was she part of Berlin's dream, or did she actually go along with them? I often wondered. The prose is excellent, almost therapeutic. I enjoyed reading the book out loud while my wife and kids were upstairs sleeping. The writing was smooth and lyrical, the images bold and colorful. For instance, this passage continues to replay in my mind: "...their socks rotted, and their feet turned white and soft so that the skin could be scraped off with a fingernail, and Stink Harris woke up screaming one night with a leech on his tongue." At times I felt as though I was there with the soldiers, suffering with them. How is one affected by war? Each soldier in Going After Cacciato is affected differently, and O'Brien, himself a Vietnam veteran, shows that some men shrink with fear, others rush forward with clenched teeth, and still others run away. War has a way of doing that, I hear.
Rating:
Summary: Cool
Review: Hey all you book readers! Try reading, "Going After Cacciato," by Tim O'Brien. It's a great war novel about a group of soldiers that are ordered to chase down a deserter. The setting starts in Viet Nam, continues on into South Asia, and finally ends up in Italy. Take note; this is all on foot. Tim O'Brien uses a lot of humor in this story. It sure kept me reading. If war novels don't interest you, or bore you to death, Tim O'Brien will change all that. He changed my attitude about reading. Before I discovered his work, I didn't even think about putting my hands on a book. I will admit, there are a lot of authors and books out there that aren't that good or don't fit your taste. All you have to do is match yourself up with one or more. The results are astounding. I have faith that O'Brien's writings can appeal to the young people out there who suffer from this anti-reading syndrome. Believe it or not, O'Brien actually helped improve my writing skills. From reading so much, I developed composition skills that have breezed me through the last two years of high school with an A to B grade point average. I'm not trying to brag, but going from a fail to an A student based on reading alone made a reader and a believer out of me. So I leave you with this review in hopes of getting through to at least one person. And remember, a book a day keeps the illiteracy away.
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Summary: Apocalypse Maybe? Tim O'Brien's Nam as war theater-of-absurd
Review: Like the film APOCALYPSE NOW! Tim O'Brien's novel is a concatenation of vignettes portraying the Vietnam war as madhouse; theater of the absurd and as combat ordeal. The narrator, Paul Berlin, guides the reader through episodes that convey confusion, ironic detachment and steel-in-ice hardness that...sometimes...shields soldiers' sensibilites from acts of brutality that necessity in battle requires them to witness or engage in. Cacciato is no Colonel Kurtz. Berlin's squad is doing everything it can to avoid descent into the heart of darkness. In fact, Cacciato is trying to escape to Paris...City of Lights. This hallucenigenic plot is so radical that no one could ever be deluded or compelled to regard it without metaphor or allegory. Right? Except, that most soldiers who fought in Vietnam after Tet 1968 would tell you they were "there" to get the hell out of there as soon as possible. So why not...like Cacciato...head for the hills; or like (fill in: ____________)decline the "invitation"? Tim O'Brien presents, I believe, and honest and affecting answer. It is rendered in a dream/trial sequence that proposes a notion of what the Romans called "communitas" as reason why men will sacrifice themselves in an absurd or even "immoral" war. Derek Maitland...an Australian author...wrote a hilarious novel called THE ONLY WAR WE'VE GOT. Its climax is an NVA regiment-sized raid on a major MACV command PX; its objective: sieze as many Cokes and chocolate candy bars as possible. It's funny to the max. But Cacciato's clown comedy spirit("The Only War We Lost")poses ultimate questions about the nation's spirit. It's for readers to judge what was lost and...perhaps...needs finding. This is a function of literature and Tim O'Brien has commendably written a novel another might name "We caught it the Rice Paddies...a Combat Memoir by Holden Caufield, PFC."......
Rating:
Summary: Confusing, but good
Review: This book was very complex, and at times I felt completely lost in understanding the plot. Tim O'Brien masterfully combined three different stories with three different time periods into one complete novel. The book adressed many of the important issues of the Vietnam War that would be beneficial for almost any history enthusiast. Even though it was a bit difficult to follow, this book was amazingly written, and I highly recommend reading it.
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Summary: Going After Cacciato - Confusing, but interesting.
Review: I rated this book a three based on O'brien's The Things They Carried. I thought that book was a five, but was disappointed with Going After Cacciato. It was great and very interesting in the beginning, but later trailed off and was boring and confusing. I felt O'brien left too many holes to be filled in with our own imagination - why! It's his story, his writing, why not tell it like it is man! Stop sending us dribbling a basketball backwards down a football field man! The imagination and pretending that Berlin used a lot in the book was very good, but it also added to the confusion and easily threw me off. If you want to read both The Things They Carried and Going After Cacciato, read Cacciato first, otherwise it will only be a disappointment.
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Summary: Best Ever
Review: Truly the best book I have ever read. So gripping you will never want to put it down, even when you are done. So surprising I had to read the ending three times! So amazing you will want to read it over and over.
Rating:
Summary: O'Brien's best
Review: This is one of my favorite novels of all time. I first read it in college, nearly fifteen years ago, and recently picked it up again. It can be read on many levels: a Vietnam story, a discourse on the absurdity of war, a study of human nature, etc.. O'Brien is a gifted writer, and while I also enjoyed The Things They Carried and In the Lake of the Woods, this book remains my favorite.
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