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)

Terrific Narration, Overwritten Book

I've had this book on my shelf for many years, but seeing Bryan Cranston as narrator made me finally "read" it. It has many good details about the Vietnam War and some anecdotes I hadn't heard before, like the story about the teenage girl who goes out with the Green Berets. But O'Brien is heavily dependent on iteration as a dramatic technique and I find it tiresome. Is it really important to the book that we be told, maybe 20 times, that the author is now 43 and that he's writing about himself at 23? There's a lot of this and I didn't find it effective, just time-consuming.

Kudos to Cranston though.

VIETNAM VETERANS AND VICTIMS

Listening to “The Things They Carried” reminds baby boomers of Edwin Starr’s 1969 anti-Vietnam song, “War”. The reminder is in its refrain, “What is it good for?–“Absolutely nothing.”

“The Things They Carried” reinforces history’s judgment of Vietnam. Vietnam was an un-winnable war; entered into by the United States with ignorance equal to benighted judgement in Iraq.

One of my two half-brothers served in the 101st airborne in Vietnam. In truth, we rarely saw each other but he never talked about his Vietnam’ experience. He died at 62 years of age. He was a financially successful business man but now I wonder how much of his life was affected by senseless war—I hear Edwin Starr’s refrain. “The Things They Carried” makes one worry about all war veterans and victims; on both sides of senseless war.

amazing

once I started listening I could not stop... I had read this book several times through and decided to give the audio book a try when I saw who was narrating it... simply amazing.

so very hard to listen to this but I couldn't stop

Would you listen to The Things They Carried again? Why?

parts of it but some parts are just too awful.

What other book might you compare The Things They Carried to and why?

The olive tree

What about Bryan Cranston’s performance did you like?

A voice I like and a familiar tone. Didn't use a stage whisper and didn't sound like he is speaking just to hear himself. Great real person reading a very difficult part of our lives.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

A couple of sad days as I listened then tried to push away memories of people gone now

Lest we forget.

I was born one generation after those who went to Vietnam. It was such a tragic waste of human life. We had the ability to win that war easily, but our government wouldn't support our troops correctly. Many of my family and friends had their lives forever changed in Vietnam, and this book helped me to understand a little better, in some small degree, what they went through.

Repetition begets tedium

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The chapters not directly about the author were well written.

What could Tim O'Brien have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

O'Brien should have hired an editor with the discipline to cut the repetitive material and improve the pacing of the book.

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

Cranston's performance was excellent.

Could you see The Things They Carried being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

The conceptual material is solid but it would need to be wholly rewritten.

Pardon me while I cry...

I did not end up in Vietnam. I was in a combat communication group in the US during my time in that era. I guess that I was one of the lucky ones. I can, however, relate to so much of the hell that O'Brien describes. I see my brothers in arms wearing Vietnam Vet caps or tee shirts displaying their unit insignia or years of their tours. A year or two ago I went to a free veterans' breakfast at a Golden Corral. The was no talk of the glories of that conflict but almost a sense of communal sadness and bonding. It seems that each generation has their war; their war which belongs to no other. I do understand the depression of the veteran that O'Brien describes not as depression but as despair.

I don't know that everyone would appreciate "The Things They Carried." It is not an easy book to listen to but it is a gut wrenching commentary on the war of my generation.

Be kind to the younger vets who return from the sandbox for that is this generation's war.

How sad it is.

Leave the political narrative at the door

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Possibly, although with explanation that my political leanings don't necessarily align with the author's.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I would love to learn more about this era and the things we put our boys through. I would have bought this book for at least three people I know had it not been for some of the political interjections that I know they may take offense to on some levels. I powered through those sections and found the overall book highly fascinating and engaging.

What about Bryan Cranston’s performance did you like?

Yes, the vignette's were dreamlike and nightmarish. I enjoyed meeting the different characters and understanding their motivations behind their actions, even the most grotesque of their actions.

If you could take any character from The Things They Carried out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Sometimes it was a little too Bryan Cranston... I enjoyed hearing the author's own voice at the end and then thinking back on some of the stories with the author's voice in mind. Hearing the author's voice gave the stories more credibility and emotional fragility than Cranston applied at times.

fantastic book

This is a fantastic book that has great meaning.
So much relevance, besides the simple items themselves, but the servicemen who used them.

Cried many times. +1

This book is deep in many ways, if you are looking for a book about the psychology of those on the ground in Vietnam this is a must buy.