The Things They Carried, good book?

Yeah it’s a classic.

I liked it.

I would highly recommend this book if you liked it.

Rumor of War by Phillip Caputo

Very good book. I heard O'Brien speak at an event at the WWII museum. He dropped enough anecdotes from his own story to tell you much of it is based on real events.

A Rumor of War is very good also. And Matterhorn is a good novel if you're looking for fiction based on the Vietnam War.

I just finished the chapter where the high school blonde pops up in Vietnam. Yeah, then she is hanging out with Green Berets, going on patrol with them, becoming skilled in ambushes, um yeah.

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I just finished the chapter where the high school blonde pops up in Vietnam. Yeah, then she is hanging out with Green Berets, going on patrol with them, becoming skilled in ambushes, um yeah.

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Wasn't this a story told by Rat Kiley? It isn't told by O'Brien himself, right? That's kind of the point of the Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong. Its not real. Or is it? Kiley stops halfway through the story to ask the listeners where they believe the girl is. When one suggests she's with the Green Beret's, that's where Kiley places her in the story. Its not meant to be a true narrative. It furthers O'Brien's theme of How to Tell a War Story; the truth doesn't matter, but how the listener feels the story in their gut.

If you want to dig further, the story is about the loss of innocence. But that also kind of misses the point. Whether or not the story is true doesn't matter. What matters is that the story is told, and the listener has a reaction to it.