While this book had some classic O'Brien moments I enjoyed it far less than the other books I've read by him.

Yet another great book by tim o'brien, about people messed up by Vietnam. In this one however, the main character is pretty nuts before Vietnam, but the war certainly doesn't help anything. The main character is strange and pretty hard to relate to, but once you get used to his neuroses he becomes pretty funny.

This is the story of a guy in Montana who goes nuts because he is terrified of bombs and decides to dig a fall out shelter in his back yard. His wife gets pissed and stops talking to him and his 10 year old daughter doesn't know what is wrong with her dad or what is going to happen to their family. That only accounts for maybe 20% of the book. Most of it deal with the main character growing up and how these fears drove his life, and what happened during Nam and his love life.

5 for his ability to bring the reader into a tailspin, 3 for where the story went.

fine writing with an odd plot line. Tim O'Brien, thanks much for your service in Vietnam and for your fine novels about that war. Now you are writing about the opposite character who hid underground and could never make up his mind about what he should do next. Even in the end, thank goodness, he still cannot figure out what to do. Fine writing and you are highly skilled, but this novel misses the mark.

A thought-provoking read, for sure. But then... O'Brien doesn't disappoint.

Good writing- as usual. Engaging. Decent story. A little heavy on the nuclear annihilation paranoia thing. Also- there's this thread about Sarah- a main character who is William's love interest- having blister on her lip that gets progressively worse throughout the story until it finally kills her. That part really disturbed me.

a fun read. Nice to see where a great novelist started from.

God damn, this guy can write.

Holy mother of anxiety attacks! Thanks, TOB. Thanks a lot.

very disappointing compared to his other books - just disjointed and uninteresting

Couldn't finish

Tim O'Brien is a fine author. But this isn't his best work. Read the Things They Carried and Going After Cacciato first, then Tomcat in Love. Then, if you can't get enough of O'Brien, try this one.