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A review by tipi
Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien
3.0
Jenna's recommendation. A Vietnam War novel by arguably the greatest Vietnam War writer of all time, if only for his masterful collection of stories, The Things They Carried. Going After Cacciato is a much different beast, however. It starts out similarly, taking on the point-of-view of a poetic and disillusioned foot soldier named Paul Berlin. It's obvious that O'Brien loves the poetic and disillusioned soldiers, probably because he was one himself. As such, we identify with Berlin from the onset, trusting everything he says and does even though he's stuck in the third-person. So, as his squad wends their way through the jungles of Vietnam, and as he diffidently maneuvers his way through their keyed up banter, we remain circumspect through it all. We're hyperaware of the idiosyncrasies and temperaments of these young men, because we know the context: in any good Vietnam War story, there comes a moment when at least one American blows his lid and starts needlessly tormenting (and maybe even murdering) innocent Vietnamese villagers. Who will it be?
Of course, while a few American soldiers do blow their lids in Going After Cacciato, none of those moments come close to approaching the crux of the novel. Unexpectedly, this is actually a novel about love, vagrancy, and magic. To call it a Vietnam War novel doesn't seem quite right, maybe because we've been conditioned to expect only gritty realism from our war literature. This is anything but realistic. Going After Cacciato is one mystifying digression after another, the story of one squad's transcontinental march through a land of smoke and mirrors. Like Apocalypse Now, but instead of being about an AWOL colonel, it's about a whole fucking squad of AWOLs.
Of course, while a few American soldiers do blow their lids in Going After Cacciato, none of those moments come close to approaching the crux of the novel. Unexpectedly, this is actually a novel about love, vagrancy, and magic. To call it a Vietnam War novel doesn't seem quite right, maybe because we've been conditioned to expect only gritty realism from our war literature. This is anything but realistic. Going After Cacciato is one mystifying digression after another, the story of one squad's transcontinental march through a land of smoke and mirrors. Like Apocalypse Now, but instead of being about an AWOL colonel, it's about a whole fucking squad of AWOLs.