'When Going After Cacciato appeared out of nowhere to win the 1979 National Book Award, it seemed to many, myself included, that no finer 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. By moving beyond the horror of the fighting to examine with sensitivity and insight the nature of courage and fear, by questioning the role that imagination plays in helping to form our memories and our own versions of truth, he places The Things They Carried high up on the list of best fiction about any war.' e captures the war's pulsating rhythms and nerve-racking dangers. 'With The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien adds his second title to the short list of essential fiction about Vietnam. crystallizes the Vietnam experience for everyone exposes the nature of all war stories.' 'Belongs high on the list of best fiction about any war. 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.' 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. 'In prose that combines the sharp, unsentimental rhythms of Hemingway with gentler, more lyrical descriptions, Mr. It is an ultimate, indelible image of war in our time, and in time to come.' These tell us not where we were but where we are, and perhaps where we will be. 'The best of these stories-and none is written with less than the sharp edge of honed vision-are memory and prophecy. The Things They Carried won France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize it was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Taught everywhere-from high school classrooms to graduate seminars in creative writing-it has become required reading for any American and continues to challenge readers in their perceptions of fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear and longing. The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O'Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. Description '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 TimesĪ classic work of American literature that has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene, The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling.

The things they carried