War stories....

It's a new year and for the War Through the Generations Reading Challenge, that means a whole new war.

In 2010, the focus shifts to the Vietnam War and in honor of that shift, A Reader's Respite picked up a copy Tim O'Brien's award-winning book, The Things They Carried.




First published in 1990, it turns out that this book is a pretty big deal (how did we not know about this?). Not only was it a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, but it won the French Prix du Meilluer Livre Etranger (big, BIG award over there) and is taught in literature classes worldwide. Evidently, A Reader's Respite's professors were somewhat provincial, since we're pretty sure they never mentioned this book in any of our lit classes.

The Things They Carried is a collection of stories all revolving around O'Brien's experiences as a soldier in Vietnam. As a foot soldier, young and confused, he did what thousands of American boys did: he muddled his way through. Fortunate to survive the war, he couldn't escape the memories. Writing became a way to synthesize trauma of a war with no apparent purpose.

That's what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can't remember how you got from where you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story.


O'Brien's stories, all of them so intricately connected that it seems like a seamless novel at times, convey the soldier's dichotomy of innocence and brutality: "For all my education, all my fine liberal values, I now felt a deep coldness inside me, something dark and beyond reason. It's a hard thing to admit, even to myself, but I was capable of evil."

All facets of the war are examined within these pages: the brutal death of a close friend, the suicides that came later, the political insanity, the day-to-day drudgery. The elegant combination of these facets don't provide any answers or larger moral story. There is, however, the distinct impression that a catharsis may have been reached for O'Brien and that, in and of itself, makes the book worth your time.

What did we learn from this book? Perhaps the most enduring passage - that is to say, the part that we'll remember even ten or twenty years from now - involved O'Brien's distinction between truths:

I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.

Here is the happening-truth. I was once a soldier. There were many bodies, real bodies with real faces, but I was young then and I was afraid to look. And now, twenty years later, I'm left with faceless responsibility and faceless grief.

Here is the story truth. He was a slim, dead, almost dainty young man of about twenty. He lay in the center of a red clay trail near the village of My Khe. His jaw was in his throat. His one eye was shut, the other eye was a star-shaped hole. I killed him.

What stories can do, I guess, is make things present.

A Reader's Respite has been reading a lot of blog posts recently that talk about purposeful reading in 2010. If that is your goal, this book is a worthy objective.




FTC Disclosure: This book came from a bookstore. A used bookstore, as a matter of fact. It was recommended to us by Amanda from A Bookshelf Monstrosity, who said we wouldn't regret reading this book and she was absolutely correct.

23 comments:

  1. I read this book for the first time in high school as a way to try to know my dad better - he's a Vietnam vet. It was such a powerful first read. I re-read it a couple years ago and it doesn't lose anything in repeat reading. I plan to read a couple more of O'Brien's books for the War Through the Generations Challenge this year.

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  2. I have just heard about this book recently and really look forward to reading it. As a student of history I am confident that it will be right up my alley!

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  3. Carrie - I'd like to read more of his work for the challenge, too...he's a powerful writer, no?

    Kathleen - I think you'll like it...it's a fast read, but it packs a punch, that's for sure.

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  4. I read this book back in 9th grade, surprisingly to some, just because I wanted to. I really enjoyed it. He is a great writer and I really would like to read more of his work. Particularly Going After Cacciato and If I Die in a Combat Zone.

    ~Briana

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  5. Michele -- I very much agree, this is a book one should not ignore. I listed it as one of my top eight books I read [out of 48] in 2009!
    I loved the entire thing, but the last chapter had me in tears... had me setting the book down and thinking, thinking.
    For me to be so moved by a book, well, it is a rare experience.
    All the best to you in 2010.

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  6. Yeah, I must have been raised on another planet because I'd never heard of this book until recently, when I saw it mentioned in Bookmarks. I immediately ordered it on my Kindle, and will read it at some point for the new war challenge. Wonderful review, although after reading that last passage, I'm a little shaken.

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  7. Wow, this sounds like a must-read for me. I've read a couple of O'Brien's books and they are amazing. My dad was a Vietnam vet and I know how hard the memories were for him.

    --Anna
    Diary of an Eccentric

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  8. I LOVED this book! I read it a couple of years ago and I still think about it.

    Lezlie

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  9. No need to enter me, but I really love what you say in this post about this collection. I loved this one and I think anyone who wins it will be touched by it.

    should I consider this your first review for the challenge? I can post it beginning next week if it is.

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  10. I have this book and intend to make time to read it this year. My FIL, a Marine who served in Vietnam, read it and actually didn't like it. He thought it was inaccurate. We'll see!

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  11. Wonderful review of an unforgettable book! This is the only war book I've ever loved, and O'Brien's stories are somehow devastating and wonderful at the same time. Go glad you enjoyed it. One of my goals for this year of reading deliberately is to pick up more O'Brien. Thanks for reminding me.

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  12. Whew, I am sooo glad you warned me you bought the book and no one sent it free. Now if Harriet would only disclose :p

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  13. So glad you liked it :) I'm hoping many more people pick this book up in 2010.

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  14. My son read this in high school and has told me that I need to read it. I've put it off because I thought it would be very emotional. I hope to read it for this challenge.

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  15. Sounds like a powerful book. I'd never heard of it before.

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  16. I've heard about this several times, but always seem to forget about it just as soon as it's mentioned. Great review - I'm going to have to check it out... Maybe I should write the name down this time...

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  17. You're review link will post on War Through the Generations on Jan. 27, 2010! Thanks for reading for the challenge and keep those reviews coming. Happy reading!

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  18. This is a book I want to read but can't ever quite work up the nerve to. My bf, who was in Desert Storm, has been telling me stories of what he saw and it is hard to hear. I can't imagine actually witnessing it. I will read this book once I get up enough courage! Great review.

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  19. Thanks to you and Amanda, I've added this to my wish list. I'm working on War Thru the Generations, too, and THE THINGS THEY CARRIED seems like a must read.

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  20. I read this one in college and then had the priviledge of meeting O'Brien when he sat in on our creative writing classes for a week. Truly an amazing book and definitely an important one as well.

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  21. Glad to read your review, I found it at War Through The Generations. As luck would have it, I actually ordered this book from Amazon on Monday. Now I can't wait to read it.

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  22. I've read The Things They Carried during my senior year of high school and it was an excellent read. This isn't war related, but I also read July, July by Tim O'Brien and the book was quite interesting.

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Fire away!