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nkrieger25 's review for:

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
5.0

5 years later, not in high school English class anymore, and this book is still so good. Every story is visceral and gut wrenching and each character has so much personality.

Here are my favorite chapters organized loosely on theme:

Speaking of Courage & Notes & In the Field

How to Tell a True War Story & Good Form

Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong

The Ghost Soldiers

The Lives of the Dead

One of my absolute favorite parts of this book is how aware Tim O’Brien is of the “mythology” of himself and the war and how stories are told - just so so so beautiful I can’t say it enough.

“I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth… “Daddy, tell the truth,” Kathleen can say, “did you ever kill anybody?” And I can say, honestly, “Of course not.”
Or I can say, honestly, “Yes.””