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Summary: Amazing, clear, & clever account of war
Review: When I fisrt began reading, I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy the book. Later that same day I couldn't leave the house because I just needed to know what happened to them. O'Brien's language is clear and crisp. I reccomend that everyone reads this book!
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Summary: O'brien is an expert prose stylist
Review: Whether or not this novel is important as a Vietnam novel seems to me to be irrelevant, or at least unimportant to me. "Going After Cacciato" is not simply an allegory of war, but also of the human instinct to join a group or cause. Cacciato represents individualism, self-interestedness, and idealism . He is, himself, and ideal or an aspiration. O'brien's novel changed the way I understand my reality. It challenged me to think outside of the group I was a member of and consider the legitmacy or appropriateness of membership. Read this book.
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Summary: Dude, I just didn't get it
Review: I thought "In the Lake of the Woods" and "The Things They carried" were amazingly powerful works. But everyone said "Wait until you read Cacciato!" Well, I read it. What the hell? Parts are really good: the troop in Iran, the subplot involving the troop's dead lieutenant, the gradual evolving of Cacciato's character. As a whole, however, there was no coherence or cohesiveness and just a little too much mysticism. Characters using fantasy to overcome grim reality seem to be an important part of O'Brien's work but he pulls out all the stops here.
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Summary: Brilliant, but ponderous
Review: I read this book immediately after having read O'Brien's later Vietnam novel The Things They Carried, which I also highly recommend. The story is gripping, the characters well-drawn, and the descriptions of jungle warfare, the endless drudgery and fearful monotony of the soldier's day-to-day lives, and the adventures they endure make for powerful and unputdownable reading; however I was left wondering what was real and what was only imagined. Highly recommended, yet not for those who like their plots neatly tied together.
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Summary: My favorite book so far
Review: Tim O'Brien is a really well defined writer. "Going After Cacciato" has to be his most well done novel yet. The characters are well described,and the langauge O'Brien uses makes all the scenery of Vietnam seem real. This is one of the best books I've read for a long time
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Summary: Review:
Review: This book is good, but overrated. I think the main reason it won the National Book Award is because it came out relatively soon after Vietnam and not many veterans had written fiction from their experiences there yet. Although ambitious and creative, the book doesn't have any engaging characters and it drags on way too long. This is one of O'Brien's first books and I think he was trying too hard to write the Vietnam War's answer to "Catch-22". He gets much much better. His later books, such as "The Things They Carried" and "In The Lake Of The Woods", are some of the finest ever written.
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Summary: The best school book I ever read
Review: Hey now, I'll be honest, I have not the patience and much less the time to read a good book. especially one for school. But when I read Going After Cacciato in my American Literature class, I found a book I really enjoyed. I have looked around to buy my own copy of the book, but I have not been able to until now. I love this book for both its engrossing plot as well as the "thrown into the action" effect achieved by O'Brien. I even worte my research paper on the this book. The story of the VietNam War as seen inside the head of one soldier, Going after Cacciato shows the war's effect on the soldier's mind as well as his body. It examines the other factors of war, as far as purpose and causes. If you like war novels or not, you will like Going After Cacciato. Give it a try.
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Summary: A good if not great novel about the Vietnam war -- or is it?
Review: GAC is not the book that O'Brien's The Things They Carried is, but it certainly is an interesting account of a (fantasy?) trek across Asia and Europe. On the surface it's about the Vietnam war, but I think there's a whole lot more to it than that.
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Summary: Interesting But Certainly Not A "Masterpiece"
Review: I found this novel to be interesting and well written but not a great book by any standards. To put it in the same league as other (anti-)war novels like "All Quiet on the Western Front", "The Naked and the Dead" or even "Slaughterhouse Five" is a grave disservice to those true masterpieces. Those books merit a "10" rating. By comparison a "7" is generous for this book.
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Summary: If you liked the movie Predator, then you'll love this book.
Review: This book is really intense. I mean when you read it, it makes you feel like you were one of the American soldier fighting for your country and your life. Every chapter has a very exciting and keeps you on your toe scenes. This is why I think this book compares to the movie Predator. This book is simply breath taking and a Vietnam war story masterpiece......
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