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Things They Carried

by Tim O'Brien
Things They Carried

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ISBN13: 9780618706419
ISBN10: 0618706410
Condition: Like New


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Staff Pick

No single book has had more of an impact on how I interact with fiction than Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. Still, it is difficult to articulate just how monumental this novel is. I could tell you that this is the one book assigned in high school with a place of honor on my bookshelf. I could examine failings of US history classes and how O’Brien’s “war story” — his “love story” — was my first entry point to the Vietnam war. You could ask my college dormmates, who patiently sat while I read passages aloud telling them: “You have to hear this.” But nothing I say can measure up to the text itself, to the sunlight that killed Curt Lemon, that water buffalo, the Canadian border, the suffocating weight of the things they carried. I reread the first chapter any time I need to be reminded what it means to craft a powerful sentence. This is a book that will challenge your perceptions of truth, change the way you engage with history, and transform the way you read. Recommended By Sarah R., Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

“O'Brien has written a vital, important book — a book that matters not only to the reader interested in Vietnam, but to anyone interested in the craft of writing as well.” — Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

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 groundbreaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling.

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 43.

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.

Review

“The integrity of a novel and the immediacy of an autobiography....O’Brien’s absorbing narrative moves in circles; events are recalled and retold again and again, giving us a deep sense of the fluidity of truth and the dance of memory.” The New Yorker

Review

“Belongs high on the list of best fiction about any war...crystallizes the Vietnam experience for everyone [and] exposes the nature of all war stories.” New York Times, “Books of the Century”

Review

“The best of these stories...are memory and prophecy. These tell us not where we were but where we are, and perhaps where we will be....It is an ultimate, indelible image of war in our time, and in time to come.” Los Angeles Times

About the Author

Tim O'Brien received the 1979 National Book Award for Going After Cacciato. Among his other books are The Things They Carried, Pulitzer Finalist and a New York Times Book of the Century, and In the Lake of the Woods, winner of the James Fenimore Cooper Prize. He was awarded the Pritzker Literature Award for lifetime achievement in military writing in 2013.

4.9 7

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Average customer rating 4.9 (7 comments)

`
mccaly28 , September 20, 2017 (view all comments by mccaly28)
"The letter covered seventeen handwritten pages, its tone jumping from self-pity to anger to irony to guilt to a kind of feigned indifference. He didn't know what to feel." Oh this book. It sucks you in easily to a world devoid of hope but full of stories. Full of literal and metaphorical stories this book has a little bit of everything. Focusing on Vietnam Tim O'Brien crafts a wonderful and heartbreaking collection of war stories, including examining what makes a war story. This book does a phenomenal job of taking apart trauma and explaining the phenomena of war and loss. He talks about childhood and adulthood and life and death in a way that's dark and enlightening and full of a strange humor that needs to be understood. Really a deep but approachable read.

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Achowalogen , January 01, 2013 (view all comments by Achowalogen)
Tim O'Brien can do no wrong with this book, even though many of his Vietnam Conflict soldiers did. Everyone of my friends who served in this "polce action" point to the realism within the binding of this book. Too bad that many suffered not only in the war, but when they returned home. No one that reads this book cannot helped to be touched by the writing of O'Brien. Made sure it was on mandatory reading list at my high school before I retired this past Augus.

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reader in NE , January 01, 2013
Great in so many ways. connected or learned something on several levels or in several areas

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mgreiner1 , October 28, 2011 (view all comments by mgreiner1)
Although this book is based on the author's Vietnam War experience, it is very relevant to understanding the experience of the military serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. From Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage and from this wonderful book, the average citizen can learn about the inner experience of being a military service member. Only 1% of our US population serves, and the rest of us can benefit from learning of their sacrifices from the inside out.

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craigdchilds , September 01, 2011
A brilliant cycle of short stories--or maybe you want to call it a mosaic novel. The best Vietnam fiction I've ever read. My favorite stories are "The Things They Carried" and "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong"

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jthinks , July 24, 2011 (view all comments by jthinks)
This book shows how humans act in a world stripped of its usual references. What was inconsequential becomes endowed with meaning, what was important disappears entirely. The writing is beautiful, as O'Brien lets events speak for themselves. Probably a good book for anyone whose country is at war.

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childoftheblood , April 29, 2011 (view all comments by childoftheblood)
I finished this book within a day or two and I can't really explain how it left me feeling. It kind of reminds me of when I was in history class with the lights off back in high school and you can hear the voice-over of someone talking about war over footage and inside there's just kind of a hush, like everything is holding its breath. This book is one of the reasons I love reading; there is no other way a story like this could be told and still have the same impact.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780618706419
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
10/13/2009
Publisher:
CLARION & MARINER
Pages:
256
Height:
.80IN
Width:
5.30IN
Thickness:
.75
LCCN:
2009029928
Age Range:
14 and up
Grade Range:
9 and up
Number of Units:
1
UPC Code:
0046442706414
Author:
Tim Obrien
Author:
Tim O'Brien
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
War stories, American
Subject:
Vietnam War, 1961-1975 - Veterans
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Subject:
Stories (single author)

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