The Things They Carried: Tim O'Brien

I finished this book over the weekend. This is one of those rare books that we actually own. Clark's sister actually bought him this book before he went off to Army basic

training. I think he started reading it at some point but never finished it. I saw it on our book shelf the other day and decided it was the next book I should read. It is a war book and it is a great book. 

Description

A 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 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.

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. 

I always have a hard time putting into words how I feel about books that are deep. I really did love this book. It gave me a good perspective on war. I am so glad that I didn't grow up during the Vietnam War or have a husband in the military during that war. Not that any war is good but that one seemed especially scary. 

Tim O'Brien is an amazing writer. I thought this book would be a little hard to get through because it's about war but it was actually a rather quick read and I think that is because the writing was so well done. He is a great story teller. He puts such vivid visuals in the mind of the reader. It is like your there even though you'd much rather be reading it then actually be there. 

I also loved the stories about after the war. I don't think that coming home from war in those days would be easy especially with all the political turmoil that surrounded the Vietnam War. Coming home from any war would be hard and this books helps put into perspective for me what it might be like for some. 
love, Carlee