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Book Review: “The Things They Carried”

 When I was a child, and my paternal grandfather was still around (he unfortunately passed when I was 13), there was nothing I loved more than sitting and listening to his stories about his time in Korea. To me, he was a hero, having earned not one but TWO silver battle stars. And yes, I’m aware that  this was an unusual interest for preteen girl.  But, now that he's no longer here, I look to my maternal grandfather for his stories about Vietnam. My favorite one is about how “Papasan” got mad at him because he shot his only bull after it charged at him. Oh, and he brought home a monkey as a pet. It ran away after he got back home. That’s another story for another day! Nonetheless, when presented with a list of books to read for the purpose of creating a blog post review in my college English 1101 course, I chose this book without a second thought. "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien will play with your emotions in every way possible. O'Brien lays out for readers the complexity of the lives of the men of Alpha Company during the height of the war in Vietnam. He takes us to the jungle, in the fox holes, and into the line of fire. Readers get a firsthand look into the tragedies of war and learn about the things that weighed heavily on the shoulders of the brave infantrymen both literally and figuratively.  We get the war stories our grandfathers never told us. We get the nitty-gritty, the nasty stuff, the guilt, the pain, and the trauma. Years after his experiences, he felt that the world should catch an outside glimpse at the horrors of the jungles of Vietnam. The author does this using a collection of short stories that start with the anxiety of having been drafted to fight (and possibly die) for your country, all the way to after the war, when some of the men decided that the things they experienced were too much to live with. Oh, the novel can be somewhat graphic as well. Not the bloodiest I've ever read, but absolutely not meant for the faint of heart.

One of the many things that stand out about this book is that upon opening the front cover readers are slammed with 6 pages of all kinds of positive blurbs that some of the most critically acclaimed publishing companies. We also see that this piece has been considered for many awards, such as the Pulitzer Prize and did in fact win the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize, among others. I'm not sure I've ever seen another book with so many high praises from so many opinions. 

Despite deeply connecting with the content of this novel, at some point during reading I did become incredibly irritated. To read this book and enjoy it you have to come to terms with the fact that just about every true story you are told about war is more than likely “glitz-ed up” as I like to call it. One second you're reading about the war through the eyes of a combat veteran, and the next readers discover that the story they just were told may be somewhat fabricated for a bit of a theatrical affect. I continued reading however, and I’m very glad I did. I believe that regardless of the stretching of the truth, this is one of the realest descriptions of the things that went on in the lives of the American soldiers. It’s an enjoyable book that’s hard to put down, and I absolutely recommend it to anyone interested in war stories or historical fiction.

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Soviet sniper, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, credited with killing 309 Nazis

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A victim of US bombing, ethnic Cambodian guerrilla Danh Son Huol is carried to an improvised operating room in a mangrove swamp on the Cà Mau Peninsula, Vietnam, on September 15, 1970, during the Vietnam War.

via reddit

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Vietnam War, Bell UH-1C Huey gunship helicopter. 

Guerra de Vietnam, Helicóptero artillado Bell UH-1C Huey. 

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photo by John Olson.