The Things They Carried (1990 original; edició 2009)

I'll say up front that I did not finish this book. I quit at the telling of the baby water buffalo. Feel free to hate on me in the comments, but if you point toward the stars in the "my rating" section, only one star says "didn't like it" and that is the only rating suitable for a book I COULDN'T finish. I hardly think, however, my little negative will badly affect this book overall, just as my words won't.

I would never say this book is bad or evil or shouldn't be read. I felt, perhaps naively, that I was fairly desensitized to this, but it just left me feeling sick. I can see how this book can be great things to many people, but those people should be willing to understand that it can be harmful to some, apparently me.

Some will say I miss the point - and that may be, though I doubt it. I can understand appreciating this book if you want to put yourself there and feel that pain. I just don't understand why you would. It's painful and be prepared and I don't mean think you are prepared, like me, and then get slaughtered. On a bell curve of human behavior where the far right side represents utopia and perfection that doesn't exist, this lands solidly and extremely close to the very left edge. Point taken and understood. This is real and if you find a need to live within the reality, by all means partake. ( )

Things they carried with them, and more importantly things they carried inside of them.

Fabulous book, favorite themes were water buffalo, driving in the 7 mile circle and I guess the field by the river.
Author is just spellbinding, and I am not easily impressed. ( )

This book was just not my cup of tea. It was not one of those books that I could just sit and read. I found it disturbing at times and I don't doubt that events and situations depicted in the book were similar to what soldiers actually experienced in Vietnam. It takes a good writer to make someone feel disturbed so I credit the author for that. But overall, I just didn't like the story. ( )

It's probably all been said about this book. I will say that I was a bit put-off in the beginning of the book, it was formulaically presented at the off-set and I had to push through to get to the meat of it. Well done and thought-provoking. ( )

Melanie Rae Thon recommended this book. It is great! I wish I could write like this. ( )