This month our book club read The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. In many ways it is a guy’s book, dealing with the horrors of Vietnam. But mostly, in my opinion, it is a word lover’s book, as it is filled with beautiful and profound sentences. I almost felt as though the author’s efforts in grouping together phrases and words and descriptions to create something lovely was analogous of his piecing together his experiences from a tragic war into something tolerable and maybe even at times understandable.
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One of the members of our club cleverly coined this book as a “faux memoir.” The author admits, although it is based on his own war experiences, it also includes fiction. No matter how much fiction is laced throughout its pages, though, the end result is nonetheless honest and soul-bearing, and as Mr. O’Brien is fond of saying – truth. It also poses the unanswerable question – how does one cope in an environment that is unnatural?
The Things They Carried is actually required reading in some high schools and colleges, as it should be. It is a short read, and an easy read – except for a few horrific images. I believe the inclusion of these difficult-to-read passages are necessary, though. The reader needs to feel some discomfort, or the point of the book is lost.
Well done, Mr. O’Brien. Congratulations on a poignant book and on your service for our country.
