The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried
Tim O’Brien

The million-copy bestseller, which is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling.‘The Things They Carried’ is, on its surface, a sequence of award-winning stories about the madness of the Vietnam War; at the same time it has the cumulative power and unity of a novel, with recurring characters and interwoven strands of plot and theme.But while Vietnam is central to ‘The Things They Carried’, it is not simply a book about war. It is also a book about the human heart – about the terrible weight of those things we carry through our lives.

The Things They Carried

Tim O’Brien

Copyright (#ulink_30148cb7-b8a6-5bd9-9a19-bea4a5a3cdb3)

Of these stories, five first appeared in Esquire: ‘The Things They Carried’, ‘How to Tell a True War Story’, ‘Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong’, ‘The Ghost Soldiers’ and ‘The Lives of the Dead’. ‘Speaking of Courage’ was first published in The Massachusetts Review, then later, in a revised version, in Granta. ‘In the Field’ was first published in Gentlemen’s Quarterly. ‘Style’, ‘Spin’ and ‘The Man I Killed’ were first published, in different form, in The Quarterly. ‘The Things They Carried’ appeared in The Best American Short Stories 1987. ‘Speaking of Courage’ and ‘The Ghost Soldiers’ appeared in Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards (1978 and 1982). ‘On the Rainy River’ first appeared in Playboy.

The author wishes to thank the editors of those publications and to express gratitude for support received from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Fourth Estate

An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

Flamingo is a registered trade mark of HarperCollins Publishers Limited

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

Published by Flamingo 1991

First published in Great Britain by Collins 1990

Copyright © Tim O’Brien 1990

The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

Author photograph © Jerry Bauer

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Source ISBN: 9780006543947

Ebook Edition © AUGUST 2010 ISBN: 9780007386802

Version: 2015-07-03

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

This book is lovingly dedicated to

the men of Alpha Company, and in particular to

Jimmy Cross, Norman Bowker, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Henry Dobbins, and Kiowa

Table of Contents

Cover Page (#ua6eea410-ec3e-5a76-96f8-38df77632ea3)

Title Page (#ud84fd56c-5cb8-53fa-96b6-0b49a228fd38)

Copyright (#u8502c837-f160-5f79-b107-d9350fae2ee6)

Author’s Note (#uf9d8c8c4-b23a-50ba-8e2f-f14b4f09e1dc)

THE THINGS THEY CARRIED (#u5d9aa51b-4c13-5a7c-9916-02743121cd91)

LOVE (#udccc8926-6221-51b9-be64-f859983eb64c)

SPIN (#uc99f9126-f1e6-5986-a063-2697fd4e3e32)

ON THE RAINY RIVER (#uc92dd919-7abf-51fe-bcbd-3087d43a88f2)

ENEMIES (#litres_trial_promo)

FRIENDS (#litres_trial_promo)

HOW TO TELL A TRUE WAR STORY (#litres_trial_promo)

THE DENTIST (#litres_trial_promo)

SWEETHEART OF THE SONG TRA BONG (#litres_trial_promo)

STOCKINGS (#litres_trial_promo)

CHURCH (#litres_trial_promo)

THE MAN I KILLED (#litres_trial_promo)

AMBUSH (#litres_trial_promo)

STYLE (#litres_trial_promo)

SPEAKING OF COURAGE (#litres_trial_promo)

NOTES (#litres_trial_promo)

IN THE FIELD (#litres_trial_promo)

GOOD FORM (#litres_trial_promo)

FIELD TRIP (#litres_trial_promo)

THE GHOST SOLDIERS (#litres_trial_promo)

NIGHT LIFE (#litres_trial_promo)