The Things They Carried

"This entire book was an absolute masterpiece. The prose in this novel was incorporated masterfully, and the story structure of the whole book was just so interestingly and expertly implemented. Even chapters that I didn’t find particularly entertaining were risen to a level of artistry because of the impact it left me with and the thoughts the author put behind it. I have never read a book that made me want to read it out loud quite like this one. And chapter seven, is probably one of my favorite chapters of all time, out of all the literature I have read. Overall, amazing story with such a thought provoking message and perspective. "

"Read this over 10 years ago, but I think it is time for a re-read. 🤗"

"**SPOILERS** The Things They Carried is a book that everyone should read. Not because you're required to for a class or because you want to seem fancy by reading classics, but because of the absolute perfection in Tim O'Brien's writing, the way he is able to illustrate his purpose so carefully, using a combination of fiction and reality to get the reader to understand the messages he is trying to convey. As someone who usually isn't interested in war stories, I loved every second of this book. It has a mix of realistic military trivia and character-driven progression. But The Things They Carried is not a story about war. If anything, I would argue that Vietnam is just the background used in order to further Tim O'Brien's message on the importance of storytelling. Definitely, the fact that it takes place in the midst of the Vietnam War is important, but the story is not about killing the enemy or rising in military ranks. It's a story about responsibility and grief and closure. It begins subtly, but by page 225 you're already wondering how much of what you'd read really was fiction. Throughout the book, O'Brien describes characters like Rat Kiley or Mitchell Sanders that are known to exaggerate the stories they tell on the battlefield, solely because they want to make their listeners feel the full impact of what really happened. And this is what O'Brien is doing with this very book. He is taking the truth and amplifying or bending it, sometimes even creating new truths, in order to have his reader understand the complete and unfiltered reality. It's to the point where you have no idea where the happening-truth ends and the story-truth begins, but it doesn't matter, because in a way it all happened. As a writer, I can only dream of being as good of a storyteller as Tim O'Brien. His prose in this novel is amazing. Each paragraph break hits you hard, each unending sentence like a winding road. For these reasons, the chapter "Good Form" is no-doubt my favorite out of the book, and yet it's only two pages. This book is incredible. It's a war story, it's a love story, it's not a story at all. It's fiction and it really happened. "

"Although I read this in class, I really enjoyed it and would probably read it again. It does a beautiful job at depicting what life might have been like for real soldiers during the Vietnam War. "

"I read this for English class and it was really cool!"

"My grandfather was in Vietnam. Behind these words I see his face."

"read for lang - gave me my research paper topic so loved it "

"Don’t ever ask me to read a single page of this again. It’s a good book but gets boring at some chapters. Had some good moments but it was ruined when I had to repeatedly read this over and over for my AP Lang. teacher. "

"It was such a different perspective from things I normally read. Absolutely loved it."

"Amazing. New perspective."