The Things They Carried
Yes, this is a war book. Yes, it's graphic in parts.
(perhaps it's ugly reality will balance out the fake {and yet still ugly} "reality" of "What a Girl Wants"...)
I think it is good to read this book for several reasons:
1. It'll make my life easier. Selfish, I know, but I have to read it for my other book club anyway. ;) Ok, sorry, I'll be serious.
2. I personally know very little (read, nothing) about the war in Vietnam. To be honest, I know little about modern American history, and not much more about American history as a whole. I believe it is good to know our past to help guide the steps of our future. I believe mothers play a big role in shaping the thinking of their children, and it's important to teach them what is worth dying for, and killing for. We must think these things through before we can pass them on.
3. There are men in all our lives: fathers, brothers, husbands, sons. Men are called to different roles than women are called to, like that of soldier. It is helpful for us to accept those roles; and in order to be able to accept, we must (on some level) understand.
Review:
Gritty. Honest, particularly in its confusion. Interesting. Sad.
At moments moving, at moments disturbing. Much truth, but no conclusion drawn.
I believe we are able to go a step further than our author, Tim O'Brien, and ask, not so much "was it worth it, was it right, was it wrong?", but "What IS worth dying for, what IS worth killing for, where do we draw the line, by what standard...?"
Many have tried to answer these questions. Maybe it is time we joined the conversation...
posted by return home gnome @ 10:00 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Woah. You've ALMOST SOLD ME on it. ;D Congratulations. (I think all your points are good, strong and entirely valid!)
Truthfully, I'm still undecided whether or not I will read this one. Eons ago E & I read "The Rape of Nanking" while on a roadtrip (you know, for entertainment =P) and I used to work in a DA's office. So I've seen and heard and listened to plenty on gore and killing. Last month's "Iliad" filled me to capacity on it. I'm not so sure I'm ready to leap back into death again. (Hello, "East of Eden" *groan* and blah, blah, blah.)
I find that I'm addicted to gore in some respects in an unhealthy manner. I have pictures burned in my memory of things I either read and/or saw while working in the DA's office. These are pictures I am 50% happy to remember, because they make me thankful and 50% of me regrets having ever sneaked a peak. Thus, when I obtained my copy of TTTC at the library and read the back I began pondering whether or not I would read it. I've personally seen death and killing and truthfully, I've about had my fill. When no hope is presented at the end of the book/movie/story then I'm really not interested in exposing myself to it.
If Tim O'Brien lacks hope and keeps an open-ended question flapping in the breeze -- then I'm not convinced I should read it.
Just throwing that out there. I am NOT discouraging others from reading it. All I'm saying is, I'm not necessarily in a place where it would be an entirely healthy read for me. That being said - I very much appreciated the review, E. And I'm curious to gather other people's thoughts on the matter.
This book is not like The Rape of Nanking. Nanking was more of a historical account, "spiced up" with stories, while this is literature with quite a decent bit of philosophising mixed in.
I had to give up on it. The language was simply an insurmountable barrier. I can't read incessant swear words and not have it affect me, and I don't want my mind steeped in that kind of stuff. From the reviews, it doesn't sound like that sufficiently great of a book to make up for it, although I too have a feeling that I should know more about Vietnam. Too bad this one wasn't a bit more palatable, or I might have read it all, disturbing/inconclusive as it was.
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