The Things They Carried: Essential Fiction About The Vietnam War

Discover the pulsating rhythms and nerve-racking dangers of the Vietnam War

"With The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien adds his second title to the short list of essential fiction about Vietnam. As he did in his novel Going After Cacciato, which won a National Book Award, he captures the war's pulsating rhythms and nerve-racking dangers. High up on the list of best fiction about any war ... A stunning performance. The overall effect of these original tales is devastating."

Robert B. Harris, New York Times Book Review "In prose that combines the sharp, unsentimental rhythms of Hemingway with gentler, more lyrical descriptions, Mr. O'Brien gives the reader a shockingly visceral sense of what it felt like to tramp through a booby-trapped jungle, carrying 20 pounds of supplies, 14 pounds of ammunition, along with radios, machine guns, assault rifles and grenades. . . . With The Things They Carried, Mr. 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 "When Going After Cacciato appeared out of nowhere to win the 1979 National Book Award, it seemed to many, myself included, that no finer war fiction had, as of then, been written in the closing half of the 20th century—or was likely to be in the remaining years to come. The Things They Carried disposes of that prediction. . . . Tim O'Brien is the best American writer of his generation."
Tom Dowling, San Francisco Examiner "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 "Rendered with an evocative, quiet precision, not equaled in the imaginative literature of the American war in Vietnam. It is as though a Thucydides had descended from grand politique and strategy to the calm dissection of the quotidian effects of war. . . . O'Brien has it just right." Washington Post "Powerful. . . Composed in the same lean, vigorous style as his earlierbooks, The Things They Carried adds up to a captivating account of the experiences of an infantry company in Vietnam. . . . Evocative and haunting, the raw force of confession." —Wall Street Journal "O'Brien's meditations—on war and memory, on darkness and light— suffuses the entire work with a kind of poetic form, making for a highly original, fully realized novel. . . . Beautifully honest. . . This book is persuasive in its desperate hope that stories can save us." —Publishers Weekly "O'Brien has written a book so searing and immediate you can almost hear the choppers in the background. Drenched in irony and purple haze napalm, the Vietnam narrative has almost been forced to produce a new kind of war literature. The Things They Carried is an extraordinary contribution to that class of fiction. O'Brien's passion and memory may have been his torment all these years, but they have also been his gift. The Things They Carried leaves third-degree burns. Between its rhythmic brilliance and its exquisite rendering of memory—the slant of sunlight in the midst of war, the look on a man's face as he steps on a mine—this is prose headed for the nerve center of whatwas Vietnam." — Gail Caldwell, Boston Globe