Books

I remember when I first read it. Stuck with me for a long time. Both the content and the prose. I'm way overdue for a revisit.

I used to teach this book, after having it taught to me by an amazing professor.

The conversations were great. This book really transcends so many barriers.

Amazing book

I think of that damn story all the time. I can't look at old photography without thinking "who took that picture"

Great book.

That book endures. It helped shape the way Americans have come to feel about the Vietnam war. O’Brien distills the moral uncertainty and the lingering damage. But beyond shaping (or reflecting) how we’ve come to relate to the war, it is also a work of art. People will read it for generations to come, and even without its specific connection to the Vietnam era, people will learn about the horrors of war.

The things they carried is wonderful. Historical fiction isn’t normally my first genre choice but this book is one of my all time favorites regardless. I really liked “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” and the water buffalo bit still makes me sad to the point of almost feeling a little queasy (I’m a big softie or animals / babies / anything too innocent to fully understand it’s own suffering)

If you want to read more great Vietnam War fiction, read "Matterhorn", by Karl Marlantes

I consider it to be one of the best novels I have ever read. Unforgettable

I'm a veteran (peace time) and a teacher. I used to teach this along with Johnny Got His Gun in an American Lit class in the mid '00s. A lot of kids were shocked at the content, and others thought it sounded bad ass. A couple years later one of the kids who thought it seemed BA came back to visit after a tour in Afghanistan. He looked me in the eye and said, "I get it now."

I went home and cried.

I heard "How to Tell a True War Story" read on Selected Shorts many years ago and that was my introduction to Tim O'Brien. Totally captivating and mesmerizing.

Great book and good review, particularly the last paragraph and closing sentence.

I read this book in high school and will never forget it. An absolutely incredible read, im glad you got to experience it.

Ill always be struck by how the book was able to show the loss of innocence in war. The necklace of tongues was also a standout

I almost went to Texas State University because Tim O’Brien teaches there. I was obsessed with that book in high school.

I wrote my master’s thesis on 4 of O’Brien’s novels. I’ve read all of O’Brien’s books and they are all excellent, including his new one, America Fantastica. I think O’Brien is our finest living writer and TTTC is an absolute masterpiece, a work of true genius. It’s perhaps my all-time favorite book. I teach it to my AP English class and I uncover something new with it each year, to the point that I would like to heavily revise my thesis and try to have it published. I was on the right track with my analysis, but I missed a lot. I would love to meet him or attend one of his lectures or something. I’m a huge fan.

It has been my favorite book for almost 30 years. So glad people are still falling in love with it.

This is my favorite book to teach on high school. It's a stunning piece of literature. His memoir "If I Die in a Combat Zone" is a great companion read for the "happening truth" side of things.

I just picked up his newest book Americana Fantastica. So far it's okay, the prose isn't nearly as gripping as TTTC.

This is my favorite book of all time and completely changed the way I viewed the world and thought about truth and storytelling when I read it in high school. It was the basis of my college senior thesis about the healing power of narrative in war fiction. It’s a book that will stay with me forever, and I’m so glad you had the experience of reading it.

Read this in college for a lit class and loved it. Definitely sticks with you!

Super powerful book. I listened to the audiobook a couple years back and it's been stuck in my head for a while now. I think I need to read it again. The story of the guy who sneaks his girlfriend over really got to me.

I avoided the book because it's a historical fiction book. But seeing your review feels like I should read it. Thanks for the review.

Wonderful book!

Whenever someone asks me “what’s your favorite book?”, The Things They Carried is my answer. I read it in high school for my AP Language class. It was my absolute favorite.

It stuck with me so well that the following year, on the AP Literature exam, I wrote the open-choice literary argument essay using it (essay question 3). It was not on the list of suggested titles. In fact, I had not read any of the titles on the suggested list, so I was sweating a bit. But I could remember TTTC so vividly, so I chose that as my title. It must have been a pretty great essay - I scored a 5.

I don’t typically go for war stories, either. But this one just captures you. I’m so happy to see this thread and read others’ experiences with this text.

There it is

Now read 'Going After Cacciato'.

The audio version read by Bryan Cranston is beautiful

I read it for the first time last year and don’t have anything to say about it that hasn’t been said before. Great book. Heart breaking. Mind blowing for just how awful the Vietnam war was.

A great existential book. One of the best of that period of time.

This is my all time favorite book. In AP English in high school, we got to pick the final book we read for class and this is the one I picked at random. I wanted a war story and this is one that came up on the computer search of our library. And oh boy, it is quite the war story. Turns out we had actually read one chapter of the book several years earlier in another English class and it had stuck with me for years, so I was blown away when I got to that chapter again (it's the one where he was telling his son a war story about his time on ambush where he killed a guy with a grenade. I still distinctly remember the line about how it blew a "star shaped hole" in the guy's head).

If you liked this book, especially the whole blending of truth and fiction, then please read some of his other books! Going After Cacciato is really trippy but such a good story. I would say it's even closer to Slaughterhouse 5, just set in Vietnam. "In Lake Of The Woods* is also good, though a bit more grounded and a very different story than the other two books.

The book is amazing, but I found most interesting the underlying psychological burden that he bore. It was an deep piece of psychoanalytic exposition.

My book club recently read this. It was chosen by a member who is former military (we're in Canada) and WOW.
I've always valued and respected those who serve their countries this way, but after reading this book, the respect and compassion have gone up exponentially. It's hard to even put this into words.

Great read! Try Paco’s Story, another great book.

This book is so beautifully written.

Such a harrowing read, it's wonderful. Seconding Johnny Got His Gun

i haven't read it in years, but sweetheart of the song tra bong stuck with me so hard.

Fucking insane fun fact:

One of my best friends used to live three doors down from Tim; he asked him about this book many times.

Tim O’Brien himself says that Sweetheart of The Song Tra Bong is the most true to life story in the entire book.