O’Brien’s stories will eviscerate you, in a necessary if unsettling way, and the images in them will haunt you (three words: necklace of tongues). Friendships are formed, jokes are shared, and pleasure is had, despite the incessant destruction. “I sit at this typewriter and stare through my words and watch Kiowa sinking into the deep muck of a shit field, or Curt Lemon hanging in pieces from a tree, and as I write about these things, the remembering is turned into a kind of rehappening,” he writes. Based in part on Tim O’Brien’s own experiences in Vietnam, these interconnected but non-chronological stories expose the gruesome acts, moral dilemmas, and psychological wounds of war. If you only read one book about war, this should be it.
6 Must-Read Books About War: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1990) In a time when World War III feels like it might not be that far off, these must-read books remind us what battle really looks–and feels–like, and the ways it affects those who fight for the rest of their lives. The authors are veterans, journalists, and modern-day heroes who spared no detail, no matter how heinous. The following list includes both fiction and non-fiction tomes that propel the reader into action-packed war scenes with visceral descriptions. Aside from enlisting, the next best way to get inside the mind of a military man is to read books by, and about, those who have been on the front lines. But understanding a soldier’s experience isn’t as easy as listening to tales told over a few beers (assuming s/he is even willing to talk). Even if you’ve never been to war, you likely know someone who has.
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