The things they carried5/9/2023 The Things They Carried is an extraordinary contribution to that class of fiction. Drenched in irony and purple-haze napalm, the Vietnam narrative has almost been forced to produce a new kind of war literature. "O'Brien has written a book so searing and immediate you can almost hear the choppers in the background. Evocative and haunting, the raw force of confession." Composed in the same lean, vigorous style as his earlier books, The Things They Carried adds up to a captivating account of the experiences of an infantry company in Vietnam. It is as though a Thucydides had descended from grand politique and strategy to calm dissection of the quotidian efforts of war. "Rendered with an evocative, quiet precision, not equaled in the imaginative literature of the American war in Vietnam. O'Brien's absorbing narrative moves in circles events are recalled and retold again and again, giving us a deep sense of the fluidity of truth and the dance of memory." "The integrity of a novel and the immediacy of an autobiography. Tim O'Brien is the best American writer of his generation." The Things They Carried disposes of that prediction. "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.
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