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)

Excellent

The narrator read it perfectly, pitch, tone, inflection, and animation with each character. Book easily sucked me into his thoughts, feels and experiences. Will likely listen to it again.

A beautiful downer

Tim O'Brien explores the line between fiction and memoir, and why we tell stories. The recapitulation of events remind me of musical motifs. It's a beautiful book, and really sad.

Lots to Think About

I recommend this book to anyone age 13 up. A must read for anyone who lived through the time period of the Vietnam Nam War

Vietnam in Present Day

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

I wouldn't reccomend this book to anyone, just to those who I know have a heavy heart for artwork and the passion of writing. Tim O'brien brings Vietnam right in my doorstep as I imagined his words as a dream, as he said in his writing. It's like I'm with him every step of the way as he described the experiences he had in the wartorn country of Vietnam. In an essence it's like I fought the war, but through his eyes. This book is a masterpiece and the very definition of Artwork. Probably an experience i'll remember for a lifetime.

What did you like best about this story?

I really loved how each story was interwoven with the next. I really got a full understanding of the war in Vietnam through Tim's eyes.

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

the Italian guy, I think, Mitchell Sanders

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

The book didn't make me laugh or cry, but it gave me a profound sense of War, and the mind of a young kid experiencing the very essence of hell. As a 21 year old myself, I could relate.

Cranston Makes a Great Book Even Better

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

Cranston's performance

What did you like best about this story?

The believable narrator

What about Bryan Cranston’s performance did you like?

His emotion and dramatic reading was spot on and insightful.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The Rainy River is captivating, best writing and reading I have come across in a long time. Cranston not only lends a face to the story, but a compassionate vulnerability that oozes the feelings of this young man who is faced with a life changing dilemma, no matter what choice he makes.

Any additional comments?

I would rewind and listen to specific parts again and again. The words, narration, point of view, mood, tone, all spot on. Beautifully painful book, thank you Tim O'Brein for allowing me the priveledge of hearing your story.

Amazing book, and a great reading by Cransto

Will keep you engaged and thinking the entire time. The rest of these words are to take up space because it wouldn't let me submit this otherwise

one man's Vietnam experience

First time author for me. Each war seems like a Rubik's cube, you twist it around a bit and you get a different perspective. From this view, this book is like many others. Still it has its own unique stories to tell, some I've never heard before.

The author served right in the middle of the worst of the Vietnam war and its effects never left him.

I suppose I bought this book as it was narrated by actor Brian Cranston. And, he does a good job. l suppose actors make good narrators with their voice training and learning of different accents. Still, I don't know that having a celebrity makes a big difference as a narrator, if they are good they bring life to story, still it's the story that makes a book enjoyable. I did enjoy Cranston as a narrator but after awhile in the book you forget that it's him narrating, you just get caught up in the story.

Many vets get caught up in the meaning of life after being in combat with its loss of life. O'Brien in this book is no different. I'm a vet, spent two years in Germany and knew many who had served in Vietnam. Even though I never served in combat you do wonder how you would have reacted, would you have been strong, would you have had courage when required? OBbrien calls himself a coward but was he? He did what he was asked to do. Most soldiers have an overarching desire to stay alive no matter what the circumstances.

One truth life has taught me is that 'Life is for the Living" and this book attests to that.

Vietnam is incidental to O'Brien's insights

Engagingly written - and read. This is about so much more than war.

Truth in fiction is a hobbyhorse of mine. O'Brien's insights into truth vs authenticity and the relationship between identity and memory have altered my understanding.

I recommend it to anyone who wants to "get" war without having gone to war and prescribe it for anyone thinking of writing their own fiction.

Bryan Cranston Takes You There

Tim O'brien was one of the 1.6 million Americans who served in combat during the Vietnam war. That war was indeed a mixing pot of young Americans. Because of the draft 21 year old college grads like Tim served next to high school drop outs. The drop out like the grad carried home the memory, but unlikely will ever write a book. Tim Obrien, like Ambrose Bierce, "What I Saw at Shiloh", has superbly written of the temporary insanity that overtakes the minds of young soldiers as they attempt to deal with the madness of war.

O'Brien conveys it for real, and the narrator Bryan Cranston, makes it real. I tend to be overly critical of an audiobook like this, because I was in the Infantry in Vietnam in 1965, and I am an audiobook narrator/publisher. O'Brien and Cranston nail it. Five stars all the way around.

This audiobook reminded me of watching "Pvt Ryan" in a theater with surround sound; hearing the sizzle of a round passing over your head and turning around and looking into the eyes of a dead man. I remarked to my wife coming out of the theater, that that was about as close as a civilian will ever get to being in combat.

Good story

First count report on the hell of war. I wish he would of kept to the story instead of adding his political position.