It was a quick read. I really like war novels and read this one for class, and it really is an experience. He wrote most of it while he was in Vietnam, in fucking fox holes, too! (Be ready to read a lot of f bombs) It's great. I just wouldn't call it remarkable. It doesn't wrench your heart like every page of All Quiet on The Western Front does.

Good job it wasn't me out there. Poor bastards...
O'Brien did a good job of this book. I wonder how the American GI's ever could get over it?

Why have I not read a VC account of the war?

I loove O’Brien’s way of writing and his short chapters. I thought that this memoir would be a but more easy going, but I loved the constant moralistic questions he posed and intertextuality in the novel.

I was shocked when I read this in high school but overall I'm grateful for a teacher who actually took the time to do a unit on Vietnam since the history teachers never got to it. Also one of two books that I never forgot since high school. I'm now teaching another Tim O'Brien book to my students because of this book and my own high school experience.

War, what is it good for?

Requested this from my local library on Veterans Day, and just plowed through it on my daily Metro grind this week. I'm not much of a memoir-reader generally, but I thought that it would be appropriate reading in honor of Veterans Day (well, sort of). In some ways it was your typical Vietnam-dysfunctional story that we have all heard before. I think the thing that was most interesting though was the personalization of the dysfunctional war story, and the thinking of a reluctant soldier involved in that war. he could have gotten a deferment, and he could have run to Norway (he had the plans together), but he shipped off to Vietnam. The story is very much focused on O'Brien, and the other individuals come and go briefly from the narrative. The picture of the memoir is narrow and doesn't dwell on the geopolitical issues of the era. Its about a soldier going through a war that in many ways seems to be several different repetitive patterns that never really accomplished anything - other than O'Brien surviving and being honest about how he did it.

VOTO = 3,5
Di film sulla guerra del Vietnam, famosi e meno famosi, premiati da statuette Oscar e da vari altri premi cinematografici, ne abbiamo visti tanti negli ultimi 50 anni con i soldati americani rappresentati dai volti sorridenti di Robert De Niro, Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe e Marlon Brando, per dire alcuni degli attori Hollywoodiani comparsi in queste pellicole che hanno fatto epoca, e abbiamo letto anche qualche libro sull’argomento come “Eravamo giovani in Vietnam” o “Vietnam, una sporca bugia”, “Matterhorn”, “Nato il 4 luglio”. Questo libro che ho appena terminato di leggere non è un’opera di fantasia o un saggio storico, ma le semplici memorie di un giovane americano che, pur fantasticando di sfuggire alla chiamata di leva che prevedeva un “soggiorno” in Vietnam a combattere i “rossi” invasori Vietcong, si fece la sua brava dose di guerra e qualche anno dopo il suo ritorno a casa scrisse questo libro in cui rivivere la sua guerra personale in Vietnam, le sensazioni, le paure, i pensieri condivisi con i commilitoni suoi coetanei, le azioni di guerra e le libere uscite: niente di sensazionale o di eclatante ma semplicemente la realtà quotidiana in un paese in guerra da parte di chi quella guerra l’ha vissuta senza sentirla “sua”.

This is the kind of war book that feels like stories told to you by a new friend you're getting to know: they feel revealing, and raw, and painful but also a bit charming. The mix of just-a-regular-guy and the very skilled writer makes you think he's got it all exactly right, as if there could be only one perspective on such an experience. This and Herr's Dispatches are the two best memoirs I've read on Viet Nam.

I also recommend Going After Cacciato and The Things They Carried

Personal copy

I really love "The Things They Carried", so I was so excited to start this one! I was really very disappointed :( It was very repetitive with hardly any "action", just long bouts of sitting or walking or talking about courage/morals/heros. A new concept would be introduced without any explanation, so I couldn't understand why "x" was the effect of "y" happening. Military terms, abbreviations, and names for weapons/trucks were used with no definition. For the most part, that was easier to work around, but some parts became extremely confusing from not knowing what a word meant.
A lot of his thoughts were very jumpy, like he was really excited to finish the point of his sentence and forgot some of the vital parts or didn't describe it in a way that made sense. He rehashed dull points, and then flew by others, somehow making the latter take up entire chapters. I left most of those chapters without a single clue as to what he was saying.
His writing style IS very different than other authors, and I appreciate that and know that going into the novel, but I understood "The Things They Carried" very well, and this seemed jumbled without much structure or explanation and depth.
That being said, there were some parts that were written beautifully and some chapters that really struck a chord in me. He so wonderfully uses metaphors and similes; they really leave you in awe.
I enjoyed parts, but not the book as a whole. I finished only so I could say I read the whole things, and because I was desperately hoping SOMETHING large would happen and redeem the book. Sadly, nothing.

Very poignant and poetic. Not a dull narration of events from the Vietnam war.

I love Tim O'Brien. In this book he talks a lot about bravery and courage and how most people don't have it, but what does it really mean, and is it a life-defining moment? Does one act of bravery make someone brave for life? Does one act of cowardice make them a coward for life?

Thank you, Mr. O'Brien, for having the bravery and courage to write your books sharing your experiences.

An awesome piece of writing. Harrowing, thought provoking, raises many questions about humanity. Why wasn't this book on the school syllabus when I was growing up?

If there is any writer who can be counted upon to give at one and the same time both a literary and historically accurate picture of the Vietnam War from the point of view of the Army grunt, it is Tim O'Brien. With If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home, I have now finished reading all three of his best known fiction and nonfiction works about the war.

This is his nonfiction book, which is about his own experiences, particularly fighting in "Pinkville," which is what the army jocularly called the area around My Lai, where the famous massacre took place. While O'Brien mentions it only in passing (he wasn't there at the same time as Lieutenant Calley), he depicts the dangers of fighting in the area. I was particularly impressed by the chapter entitled "Step Lively," about the many types of manufactured and improvised mines he and his fellow troopers encountered. (I was particularly awed at the famous "Bouncing Betty" mines which jumped up to waist-height before exploding.)

O'Brien managed to transfer from Alpha Company's combat activities to a clerical job before being sent home to Minnesota after his stint was up.

This is a superb book and should be read by anyone who is interested in our participation in the war in Vietnam.