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The Things They Carried

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About this listen

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.

©1990 Tim O'Brien (P)2013 Audible, Inc. Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Short Stories War & Military Solider Vietnam War War Heartfelt Inspiring Thought-Provoking Tear-jerking Military Classics

Editor reviews

"Over time, America's wars are written in shorthand: World War II is noble sacrifice; the Civil War, tragic fratricide; Vietnam, black humor and moral ambiguity. Which is partly what makes Bryan Cranston a more than suitable choice to narrate [this] new audiobook edition. Thanks to his role on Breaking Bad, 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. His calm, gravelly diction, unmarked by any noticeable regional accent, carries a faint echo of Walter Cronkite, who delivered the news from 'Nam with a matter-of-factness inflected with moral concern. But Cranston is also a capable mimic, and he does the Army in different voices. Characters who on the page are names, fates and identifying attributes grow into a chorus of American regional and ethnic types - Native American, ¬African-American, Midwestern, Southern…. The novel's two best sections - the account of an aimless drive around an Iowa lake interspersed with flashbacks to a horrible night in a Vietnamese bog, and the chronicle of an abortive flight to Canada on O'Brien's part - take on new and gripping power." (A. O. Scott, The New York Times Book Review)

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)
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Most relevant
What is a true war story? Can there ever be such a thing?

Tim O'Brien ponders this and explains that there cannot, at least not really. It is not short stories or non-fiction or a novel, but some of all these things and these tales and memories and anecdotes of Vietnam all coalesce into a book with great gravit, punch and poetry. Here the war is so intense that it overrules all else and there is an authentic and truthful power in the layers of the narrative that can't be described, at least by me.

Bryan Cranston's reading is wonderful.

What is a true war story?

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I inhaled the book, so to speak, Bryan Cranston’s voice is like butter and his reading was excellent, I would listen to him read the phone book. This book was funny and sad - it’s a book about the Vietnam war so it’s going to be sad - and made you think and feel and it really was a joy to listen to. Also the writing was excellent, will be listening/reading more Tim O’Brien

Funny, sad, thought provoking and throughly enjoyable

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A beautiful 8 hours. Bryan Cranston's reading is superb and the final chapter, as read by the author, is a very poignant finish to a truly wonderful book.

Only stumbled upon this book following Tim O'Brien's appearance on The Vietnam War documentary by Ken Burns. Both of these reflections on the conflict have been utterly mesmerising in their own ways. A great introduction to the subject for a person previously unaware of this most important topic in recent American history.

Magnificent

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This is a series of autiobiographical essays about the Vietnam War. I expected the narrator to be the star of the show but for me his was a solid 4 star performance while the author takes the gold medal. These are powerful essays and one in particular (the one about his crisis before the war) was simply spellbinding.. Please don't get this for war-story entertainment. It is more commentary than story but the commentary is first rate

FIrst rate reflections on Vietnam

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I am sincere when I say that this book has the same significance as "All Quiet on the Western Front". Both describe the extreme mental and physical distress and bitterness of soldiers confronted with protracted fear and madness, the effects and wounds of which are often carried for a lifetime in flashbacks, dreams and guilt. The prose often rise up to poetry and are complimented by the superb narration skills of an accomplished actor, Bryan Cranston.
At times the storylines are bizarre and reminiscent of "Apocalypse Now" but full of meaning. At others the stories are deep but more homely. The last chapter concerns the effects of PTSD on the author and the people around him. Though recognised now with therapy, theoretically, available PTSD is protracted torture which some cannot endure to this day.

Masterfully written and superbly narrated

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