The Things They Carried

By: Tim O'Brien

Narrated by: Bryan Cranston

Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

This modern classic and New York Times best seller was a finalist for both the 1990 Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award and has become a staple of American classrooms. Hailed by The New York Times as "a marvel of storytelling", The Things They Carried’s portrayal of the boots-on-the-ground experience of soldiers in the Vietnam War is a landmark in war writing. Now, three-time Emmy Award winner Bryan Cranston, star of the hit TV series Breaking Bad, delivers an electrifying performance that walks the book’s hallucinatory line between reality and fiction and highlights the emotional power of the spoken word.

The soldiers in this collection of stories carried M-16 rifles, M-60 machine guns, and M-79 grenade launchers. They carried plastic explosives, hand grenades, flak jackets, and landmines. But they also carried letters from home, illustrated Bibles, and pictures of their loved ones. Some of them carried extra food or comic books or drugs. Every man carried what he needed to survive, and those who did carried their shattering stories away from the jungle and back to a nation that would never understand.

This audiobook also includes an exclusive recording “The Vietnam in Me,” a recount of the author’s trip back to Vietnam in 1994, revisiting his experience there as a soldier 25 years before, read by Tim O’Brien himself.

The Things They Carried was produced by Audible Studios in partnership with Playtone, the celebrated film and television production company founded by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, and producer of the award-winning series Band of Brothers, John Adams, and The Pacific, as well as the HBO movie Game Change.

For more from Audible and Playtone, click here.

©1990 Tim O'Brien (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Cranston may be the most charismatic embodiment of moral ambiguity we currently possess. There was always something comforting as well as menacing in Walter White's voice, and Cranston attacks O'Brien's sober, sinewy prose with slightly scary authority.... [I]f you were a binge-watcher of Breaking Bad it will be no big deal to spend six hours in his company here." ( The New York Times Book Review)

"Structurally the novel gestures to William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, while Ryan's sensitive observations on Irish life seem responsive to the work of his compatriot Patrick McCabe. That Ryan does not look out of place in such literary company is a measure of his achievement." ( The Financial Times)

"The best of these stories--and none is written with less than the sharp edge of honed vision--are memory and prophecy. These tell us not where we were but where we are, and perhaps where we will be. . . . It is an ultimate, indelible image of war in our time, and in time to come." ( Los Angeles Times)

"O'Brien's haunting collection of connected stories about the Vietnam War is more alive than ever in this narration. Bryan Cranston's resonant, sometimes formal, performance often leaves the listener reeling. Cranston's voice is deep and patient, laying back to let the characters' collective pain take the fore. Memorable scenes include a man's receipt of his draft notice in "On the Rainy River," battle scenes in "The Man I Killed," and aspects of the war's aftermath in "Speaking of Courage." In all the works, Cranston offers a measured, compassionate voice. O'Brien's stories emphasize the importance of telling the truth of war stories, and Cranston's respect for his intent is clear and comforting. At times, his sonorous tone is hypnotic, but this is more an asset than a liability. All the better to make the listener feel." ( AudioFile)

Not what I was expecting. Better than that, tho.

I thought this was going to be a description of combat gear in the Vietnam War. instead, it's about the thoughts and emotions the GIs carried. Quite fascinating. I was young during the war, but I remember the terror my big brothers expressed at the thought that they might be drafted. Tim O'Brian gives a good account of why he went into the army instead of fleeing to Canada, and terrific insights into what it was like to be there. I'm sure that whatever insight I gained was around a thousandth or a millionth of what it was really like, but it's a lot more than I had before.
it was even easy listening. I recommend this audiobook.

For all vets and those too young

The Things They Carried is technically a novel, but it's really more of a fictionalized memoir, in which author Tim O'Brien creates a fictitious Alpha Company very much like the Alpha Company he served in, and a fictitious author named Tim O'Brien, who twenty years later is a writer writing about Viet Nam.

Now considered one of the "definitive" Viet Nam war novels, this book did not have the effect on me that it might on someone of O'Brien's generation. I was a child when the Viet Nam war ended, barely old enough to register that a war over there was anything of significance. I lost no family members in Viet Nam; I have no close friends who served there. By the time I came of age, Viet Nam preoccupied the media on which I grew up, but it was a foreign place and a foreign experience.

Tim O'Brien's semi-autobiographical novel is full of anecdotes, small stories, and harrowing episodes, but it's war on a small scale. Some of his buddies die, and others go nuts, but most just try to struggle their way through their tour and survive. They see action but not a lot of epic battles, just the constant threat of being shot at in jungles and drawing lots to see who will crawl into a Viet Cong tunnel with a flashlight in one hand and a combat knife in their teeth.

There is not much humor, but you wouldn't expect a Viet Nam novel to be funny, would you? (M*A*S*H*, famously, was really "about" Viet Nam but since it was still too recent and raw, they had to set it back in the Korean War instead.)

It gives some insight into what Viet Nam was like on the ground, but now, going on five decades later, Viet Nam has been explored and trodden and, if not exorcised from our national psyche, made bearable and confrontable again. And the Vietnamese, desperate to get in on the global market and its bounty of modern technology and foreign currency, no longer hold a grudge against us. They run tours through villages and war memorials. They greet American vets coming back to confront the place they once shed blood in almost like returning alumni.

As a wargamer, I have an academic interest in war. My particular area of interest is World War II, a war so long ago now that there are an ever-dwindling number of men and women who remember it first-hand, and which has faded into the fog of history and national mythology. Viet Nam, I think, is getting there. You can find Viet Nam wargames now, a thing that might upset living Nam vets but which would probably have been unthinkable in the years immediately after the war ended. Listening to Tim O'Brien talk about his ("his") war experiences did not sound very different to me than similar books narrated by World War II vets - equally horrible but equally distant, even though technically Viet Nam is within my living memory.

I appreciated this book, but I'm in that middle generation, too young to have had the real Viet Nam leave a mark on me, too old to find much here I haven't heard before.

The afterword by the author was a bonus in the audiobook, but probably what I found most profound of any of his stories was his meditation on why he went to Viet Nam. When his draft number came up, like many men of that era he contemplated the way he might get out of going, and even set out on that fabled trek to Canada. The story of his abortive flight, and his decision to return home and shoulder his responsibilities - literally - may ring more true for many of his generation than the ones who did end up dodging the draft, or who volunteered, or who were traumatized or killed. He went to Viet Nam because he couldn't stand the thought of letting down his family, his nation, of being seen as a coward. So ironically, as he puts it, he went to Viet Nam because he was a coward.

Raw, Haunting, Ruthlessly Open Account

Vietnam described in ways you never expect . . . my husband (a retired SGM) and I listened to this on a road trip recently . . . at times we laughed, totally familiar with the military terms, at other times we were totally silent . . . no words . . . absolutely NO words to describe what we were feeling . . . this is not the patriotic, hero stories of comrades at war . . . it's the down in the crap (literally), sinking into despair, wondering what the hell you are there for, tale of soldiers trying to make it one day at a time in a war that nobody wanted to fight . . . it's truthful and hard to swallow . . . it's honest beyond anything I've ever heard on Vietnam . . . no matter what your politics, you need to hear it . . .

Of its time...

I cannot imagine my daughter being nearly as affected as I was since it was not her generation with the direct experience of Vietnam. Yet as my grandchildren continue to grow and thrive, I hope they will one day read the book.

Mind Altering War Experience

What made the experience of listening to The Things They Carried the most enjoyable?

Listening to The Things They Carried was not an enjoyable but a gut wrenching experience. The stories that O'Brien told were a mix of truth and fiction that unsettled my well being and made me not want to listen. My stomach was tied in knots. I stopped listening and tried to allow my mind to relax and absorb what I had just listened to. I did listen to the whole book and I am glad that I did. The narration, done by Bryan Cranston, was exquisite. The words were given a life of their own.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Things They Carried?

One of the most memorable moments of The Things They Carried was when Tim was wounded in the buttock and kept calling, then screaming for the medic. The medic didn't come and Tim passed out for a short period of time but when he awoke the medic had still not come. Tim didn't want to die but in order to be kept alive he needed the medic to help him. Finally, the medic arrived and didn't know what in the hell he was doing.

This was the medic's first day. He had been in the field fighting with the other men when he heard someone calling for the medic. He was unable to act. He was unable to move and it was as if he was paralyzed. He took ten precious minutes to get his brain working and arrive at the site where Tim lie wounded.

When Tim had been wounded the first time he was treated immediately by a different medic, who was competent. However, that medic had been driven to what I considered could be referred to as psychotic episodes, brought on by the war. He was driven to the point where he shot himself in the foot and had to be medivacted out. His fellow combatants said to those who spoke of him, "he's in Japan."

Tim attempted to tell the medic that he was going into shock. Shock is a life threatening condition resulting from having incurred a wound that causes excess blood loss. The body needs enough blood circulating to keep the heart functioning properly. The ineptness of the treatment Tim was receiving could have led to his death. Tim fought to live to see another day. He survived and was to finish out his tour of duty in the safety of the American compound. There was a hospital, hot showers, a place to sleep without hearing the sounds of war all around him and staying dry because he was now protected from the rain that created the sucking mud where he and his comrades were made to wage the battle where Tim was wounded.

The company that Tim was in, was led by a man who could not lead. He realized this about himself but was unable to tell someone who had the authority to replace him. The night of that battle, he understood, after surveying the area, that his men needed to move to higher ground. However, he chose to remain where they were and another member under his command was sucked into the foul muck after being wounded.

Which scene was your favorite?

My favorite scene was when Tim returned, after a month in the hospital from the second wound he had sustained while in battle and was told he was to finish out his tour of duty at the compound. His days of being a grunt, fearing for his life, carrying an M60 to kill or be killed, were over.

If you could rename The Things They Carried, what would you call it?

The Scourges of War

Any additional comments?

I know that the Vietnam war was not supported by the soldier's countrymen. The men who were fighting in the war did not understand why they were fighting in this god-forsaken place called Vietnam. Whatever the politicians reasons were to DRAFT our men to fight in Vietnam, they did need the support of their country, the United States of America and their fellow citizens. Can you imagine, returning from Vietnam, or any war and being spit on. The men who fought in Vietnam were MADE to fight in that war or desert and go to Canada or elsewhere. However, I'm also sure that men wanted to and did desert for their own reasons, from other wars.

Tim wanted to run but didn't. However, he was almost in Canada but chose to return home after spending six days with an 81 year old man who, through his power to listen and make no judgments, was the catalyst that Tim feels made him return home and look at the draft notice with his name, one more time.

Why did PTSD become a known and qualified disorder after the Vietnam war? There had been many other prior war's, where men returned home and were said to suffer from, "shell-shock." It is my belief that these men were experiencing what we call, PTSD today.

Those previous wars had definition and reason. The men who returned home were not being spit upon, questioned about their participation in the war at that time. The time that our men spent fighting an unpopular war in Vietnam were as heroic and brave as any other man who had fought in a war before and after Vietnam. Please, give our men the credit that they are due. War isn't defined as popular or unpopular. War is to contend; strive_at war in a state of open armed conflict between nations. These men were soldier's. Soldier's come from every branch of the military and some soldier's fight in a war. These men were soldier's of a war, called the Vietnam war.

Tim O'Brien's book was an eye opener, told by a man who had fought for his country in Vietnam. I have a brother who fought for his country in Vietnam. I listened to Tim tell his stories. The stories may start with the first story being told and reappear in the third story he tells. Put all of the stories together and you come to understand what war was like for Tim O'Brien. The war was many things, terror, courage, death, rain, mud, elephant grass, jungles, villages, comrades, fear and many other things for many different men.

I agree with some of the positive as well as the negative reviews. So, where does that put me? I have the opinion that war, any war, I don't care what the name of the war is, was fought by the men and now women of the USA to uphold democracy, and to keep our country free. Every war has caused and will continue to cause PTSD. I just heard that more money will be spent on treating PTSD than was spent on fighting. Tim O'Brien suffers from PTSD.

His writing skills are brilliant and he has definitely brought the Vietnam war alive. To have his book called a classic and to have it implemented in the school system as necessary reading is an honor. Tim's writing is vivid, breathtaking, no bars held and extremely thought provoking.

I've been listening to many fiction and nonfiction books concerning many different wars. War in and of itself is an atrocity that has been with us since the beginning of time. War will never go away.

All War Novels should be Anti-War Novels

Where does The Things They Carried rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Despite my high rating its not one of my favorites by any means since it is well outside the genres I most enjoy (Non fiction, history and Sci-fi).I wouldn't count it among my favorites but that has less to do with the writing and the style than the subject matter.

What does Bryan Cranston bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Honestly this is my first time reading a non-science fiction war novel and its not a genre that holds much interest for me. I was intrigued by the idea that the novel is read by Bryan Cranston and skeptical as to whether it would be well executed. I was very satisfied with the narration.

Any additional comments?

I think more gung-ho adolescent boys should be forced to read such anti-war (aka realistic) war novels to make them reflect on the human costs (on both sides) of any armed conflict.

Powerful

Simply one of the most powerful books I have ever read. So heart-wrenching, so true, it is difficult to find my own true words to describe the experience that is this author’s journey into himself, and into every soldier, and into all of us. By allowing the reader into his memories, Tim O’Brien uses story to save himself now, to save himself in Vietnam, to save himself as a young boy. So this book is not only about a specific war, not only about war in general, but it is about life and the power of words.

I must add that I listened to this as an audio book read by Bryan Cranston, who was devastatingly perfect. Also, the audio book has a bonus track that is well worth listening to, featuring Tim O’Brien reading his essay “The Vietnam in Me.”

I must end this review with transcripts of some of my favorite passages from the book, because I never want to forget them.

All of us, I suppose, like to believe that in a moral emergency we will behave like the heroes of our youth, bravely and forthrightly, without thought of personal loss or discredit. Certainly that was my conviction back in the summer of 1968. Tim O'Brien: a secret hero. The Lone Ranger. If the stakes ever became high enough—if the evil were evil enough, if the good were good enough—I would simply tap a secret reservoir of courage that had been accumulating inside me over the years. Courage, I seemed to think, comes to us in finite quantities, like an inheritance, and by being frugal and stashing it away and letting it earn interest, we steadily increase our moral capital in preparation for that day when the account must be drawn down. It was a comforting theory. It dispensed with all those bothersome little acts of daily courage; it offered hope and grace to the repetitive coward; it justified the past while amortizing the future.

A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue. As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil.

I'm skimming across the surface of my own history, moving fast, riding the melt beneath the blades, doing loops and spins, and when I take a high leap into the dark and come down thirty years later, I realize it is as Tim trying to save Timmy's life with a story.

And sometimes remembering will lead to a story, which makes it forever. That's what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can't remember how you got from where you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story.

[from “The Vietnam in Me”] … Vietnam was more than terror. For me at least, Vietnam was partly love. With each step, each light year of a second, a foot soldier is always almost dead, or so it feels, In such circumstances, you can’t help but love. You love your mom and dad, the Vikings, hamburgers on the grill, your pulse, your future, everything that might be lost, or never come to be. Intimacy with death carries with it a corresponding new intimacy with life. Jokes are funnier, green is greener, you love the musky morning air. You love the miracle of your own enduring capacity for love.

Cranston makes this book

This was my first book about the Vietnam war. I could listen to Brian Cranston all day. Not sure if I would've stuck with it had he not been the reader.

spectacular style of sharing this story

What did you love best about The Things They Carried?

I loved this read. Narrator was spot on perfect. Descriptions drew pictures, emotion and a good frame around each scenario. Oh boy what an ordeal. I believe every American should hear or read this. Returning to the site was a separate ordeal and just as enticing. From his heart to mine is how I felt. Not a spewing of war but situations of war within relationships made or almost made in a short time. My hats off to Tim for the nerve to dredge it ALL UP for us.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Things They Carried?

The pig. The man showing his scares upon his return. The conversations or repetitions of some comrads after seeing something ugly.

Which character – as performed by Bryan Cranston – was your favorite?

All equal

Any additional comments?

I'm sharing this with everyone. Cranston was PERFECT.

Healing

one word is enough, CTM. there is no reason to make it 15 or more.