The Things They Carried: A Pulitzer Prize Finalist - The Classic Work of American Literature on War, Memory, and Storytelling
A classic work of American literature that has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene, The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking work of Vietnam War fiction and a meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling.
In this landmark collection of stories, The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three.
Taught everywhere—from high school classrooms to graduate seminars in creative writing—it has become required reading for any American and continues to challenge readers in their perceptions of fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear and longing.
The Things They Carried won France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize; it was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
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Community Reviews
A memoir of the Vietnam War. It is not about military stategy or specific battles. What are the things soldiers carried? Equipment, others, memories, stories all get mentioned. The memories change like the war and what people think about the war. Moving. Does not glorify war. This book made me sad for all the right reasons. "The Things They Carried" reminded me that war is a waste of humanity.
I wasn't sure how lyrical and Vietnam war could go together but it really does in this book. Tim O'Brien creates wonderful word pictures.
Re-read this in a day. I think one of the best war books ever. Other than for whom the bell tolls, perhaps. Not entirely sure how I feel about the way he plays with metafictional disavowals of the factual nature of the stories, mixing fiction and biography. I'm fine with the actual use of craft to enhance the stories - but I don't know how much explicit talking about it inside the story itself is a great additive. I feel like it might be driven by the soldiers need not to exaggerate, or be perceived as bragging, especially where trauma is concerned. However, it makes too easy a target for dismissal by people not wanting to believe in his characterization of war and thus undermines somewhat the communicative and persuasive function of the book. The stories themselves though are amazing, especially the one about his decision not to draft dodge despite being totally against the war. And of course the most memorable one about the field - really touching. I hadn't read this since high school but still that field was seared into my memory. And so readable too. Can't recommend highly enough.
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