The Things They Carried  – Tim O’Brien (Book 8 of 2015)

For those of us who like me, were lucky enough to have a high draft number, (mine was 306), and escaped the war in Vietnam, Tim O’Brien has shown us slices  of  life in it,  in his novel The Things They Carried. And it’s everything that we thought it was, everything that we protested to end.

About The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried is a collection of short stories, several of which were published prior to being incorporated into the book, that paints a vivid picture of the Vietnam experience, which for the most part it wasn’t pretty. The book follows the exploits of the men that Tim O’Brien served with the one’s who died like: Curt Lemon, Ted Lavender, and Kiowa and those who made it through, alive, but changed forever like: Lt Jimmy Cross, Norman Bowker, and the narrator who has been writing about the war, since it ended, hoping some how that the stories will save him.

While all of the stories were amazing little slices of life in Vietnam, the one that got me was Chapter Four “On the Rainy River” where Tim is confronted with the being drafted to fight in a war that he really didn’t support and contemplates going to Canada. As I mentioned previously, I was lucky enough not to have to face that dilemma, but through the years, I have wonder what I would have done. In my mind, I always go to Canada, but in reality I don’t think that would have happened. I really don’t know how I could have handle even a tenth a hundredth of what Tim describes in The Things They Carried. At best maybe I could have been a Radar O’Reilly, I know wrong war, but you get the picture. My heart goes out to all those who lost their lives either in Vietnam or after they returned.

After I finished the book I thought, you know, the book really had no plot, no hook that catches you and keeps you reading. But then I leafed through the book, and realized that you can reread any story and get something from it, and that is wonderful. Each story provides a slice of life in Vietnam, some sad, while others just fascinating.

I read through the quotes about the book and this one from the Richmond Times Dispatch comes the closest to how I feel about the book….

“The Things They Carried is more than “another” book about Vietnam….It is a master stroke of form and imagery…. The Things They Carried is about life, about men who fought and die, about buddies, and about a lost innocence that might be recaptured through the memory of stories. O’Brien tells us these stories because he must. He tells them a they have never been told before…. If Cacciato was the book about Vietnam, then this is the book about surviving it”

Bottom Line

: The Things They Carried is an A++ book. I guess that is why the book won the prestigious French Prix du Meilleur Livre Erranger award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award! huh! Everyone who wants to know more about the Vietnam War or life in general should read it!!

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On July 15th of 1966,  US forces began “Operation Hastings” an operation to drive North Vietnamese forces from the demilitarized zone between North and South Vietnam. From Wikipedia….

Operation Hastings was an American military operation in the Vietnam War. The operation was a qualified success in that it pushed the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) forces back across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). As the NVA clearly did not feel constrained by the Operation Hastings was an American military operation in the Vietnam War. The operation was a qualified success in that it pushed the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) forces back across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). As the NVA clearly did not feel constrained by the “demilitarized” nature of the DMZ, US military leadership ordered a steady build-up of U.S. Marines near the DMZ from 1966 to 1968.

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I was 15 in 1966 and on the cusp of caring about what was happening in Vietnam, but over the next few years, as I approached draft age, my concern would obviously, grow. Eventually, I ended up on the side that thought the war was wrong, and wanted to bring our troops home.

When I think about this period of my life, the musician who comes to mind is Country Joe McDonald….”and it’s 1, 2, 3 What are we fighting for….”  No really, it’s Phil Ochs and the song that comes to mind and really sums up for me,  why we were destined to fail in Vietnam, and with a change in colors Iraq, is “White Boots Marching in a Yellow Land”….

When Tony angrily confronts Jim with the bitter accusation that he fought in Vietnam so that burnouts like him could stay home and get loaded at protest rallies, the philosophical Ignatowski can only stammer a heartfelt, and utterly sincere, “Thank you.” Read More

and while I did not get loaded at Protest Rallies I also say – Thank You!

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