The Things They Carried

Year 13s who are reading this book this year as an English text put me on to The Things They Carried. We didn't have it in the library so we ordered it and I've just finished it. I've read a lot of great books about the Vietnam War and this is up there with them. The author,Tim O'Brien, describes fellow soldiers as well as incidents that he was part of during his time as a soldier in Vietnam. The cost of war on the people involved is at the heart of The Things They Carried and it will have you in turn upset and shocked at the horrors of war and at other times laughing at some of the absurdities. Told in the form of short stories it is easily accessible for senior students.