The Things They Carried & The Sorrow of War | REVIEWS

My thoughts on two books about the Vietnam War.

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Books mentioned:

THE THINGS THEY CARRIED by Tim O'Brien

THE SORROW OF WAR by Bảo Ninh

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[GetReal]

These are EXCELLENT insights into both books and their authors. Thank you Claire for your clarity ability to share your best thinking.

[jamespaints]

WOAH! When you said, “Bao Ninh achieves a poetry of his own, a kind of slow and seeping pathos that permeates the book” I resonated with that after reading his work. It stays with you.

[whatpageareyouon]

That quote about sunlight from TTTC is the scene that haunts me the most, I love it so much. I loved this sense of "relief" you discussed in a reading experience with topics like war, especially these personal accounts of it. Another stellar side-by-side review of works in conversation, Claire!

[sono]

As a vietnamese youth, i appreciate your effort in reviewing such a tough book of an Vietnamese . I havent read The Things They carried yet but now i will, in order to find what u guys american think about us in wartime.

[standardbrah]

Brilliant analysis and comparison! I just finished the Sorrow of War and I found myself constantly nodding, hmm-ing and ahh!-ing as you shared your insights. I especially loved the realization you shared contrasting where death comes from and how it relates to the narrator's country of origin - for the Americans, it comes from the ground, and for Kien and the Vietnamese, it comes from above. I think that represents a lot, but the very fact of it is just as interesting as well. Thank you for your thoughts!

[jh]

Wow great review. I have recommended both these reads to people and I tell them Tim O’Brien’s read first and the one main thing I felt was the memories he shares really help you better picture a death and also that you know he will be home, maybe some hope, but with Bao Ninh I felt everything was gray, no glimmers of hope for anyone to get out of a bad situation and how war really affects everyone if happening on your soil. The truck driver’s ptsd trigger of driving on soft roads really helped me understand it a bit better but also was horrifying

[wbwarren]

Great video! Thank you. I am currently reading “the sorrow of war“ and thanks to your review. Will also read “what they carried“. I think your review of “the sorrow of war“ is very much on the mark.

[OldBluesChapterandVerse]

The Things They Carried is a masterpiece. His novel Going After Cacciato is brilliant, too. Kelly and I are huge fans of his. A few weeks ago, we learned something that broke our hearts: five or six years ago, he gave a talk and led a free writing workshop at a literary event in Cheyenne — two-and-a-half hours from where we live. There was no reason whatsoever that we shouldn’t have known about it at the time. The organizers of these events rarely do a good job of making surrounding areas aware of them. There should have been flyers for it in every library in the state, at the very least. This was a good reminder for me to call those organizers and jaw at them a bit for their failure to let the community at large know. More often than not, such events are advertised on the campuses where they’re being held — you don’t even see them advertised elsewhere in the city, to say nothing of nearby cities. It’s ridiculous. I was furious to learn that we missed hearing him speak.

[josmith]

This was such an excellent side by side look at these two books Claire. I appreciated O'Brien's question as to how to separate what happened to what seemed to happen as well as your discussion on the elliptical nature of both books with the past disrupting the present. The difference in the ways death comes, from below or above just seems to show both how different and how similar these books are and I look forward to reading both.

[Robert.Sheard]

Both of these titles are on my list for the thematic series on war. I almost didn't watch your video because I didn't want to be swayed but I couldn't resist. So interesting.

[myreadinglife]

Very eloquent reviews. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[abdulrahmanryan]

Claire, just stumbled across this channel. Haven't read O'Brien, but just re-read Ninh after many years. I disagree. I think it's so tragically captivating and haunting, I finished it in one night! It seeps deep into your soul! From an American perspective, many years ago I read Wallace Terry's 'Bloods': An Oral History of African Americans in the Vietnam War. It was a great read.

[zimtuff]

I bought The Sorrow of War at Tan Son Nhat Airport after having arrived 4 hours early. I reached the battle at the airport where at the end, Lien and his fellow soldiers made couches out of dead bodies of the airport staff and threw others off the mezzanine level and drank whisky looted from.the duty free store. I sat on the ground level imaging dead bodies falling on me. A haunting read that I can not forget.

[dsweet_library]

This is an amazing video. I own The Things They Carried, but now I feel like I need to pick up The Sorrow of War and do as you say: read them side by side. Thanks for this video and recommendation.

[gordonlin]

lets go, turns out some parts on our summative are connections between both books

[eviewilliams]

Wow. What a fantastic insightful video. In spite of having heard that it is amazing, I've had The Sorrow of War on my TBR shelf for about 20 years now. It will be thanks to your video that I will finally go and read it. I am thrilled to have discovered your channel but selfishly wish you would post more frequently. You are a pleasure to listen to.

[tortoisedreams]

Wow. Claire, this is really amazing, a triumph. your review is worthy of these books (tho I haven't read them yet, I feel I know them). Have you read Dispatches by Michael Herr? I've been thinking about emotional truths v. statistical or other "factual" truths (telling a black man in America of the statistical opportunities available to him doesn't take into account the emotional truth of his life), & these books may express it better than I could ever hope to. It's all Rashomon. I think the non-fiction novel (as In Cold Blood) may be the way to get at these different truths. One thing about Vietnam is the veterans are still all around us. So many that I've talked to have said that there was no one they could talk to about it, it wasn't like other American wars, & perhaps the inability to release it was part of what made mental and physical effects visible in every one of them. Thank you for this excellent review, you really outdid yourself, be proud of yourself.

[gordonlin]

lol thanks for the reviews. We just finished reading The Things They Carried, and now, we're reading the sorrow of war.

[tylerjackson]

Thank you. I have and still need to read The Sorrows of War for a college paper, but I also just genuinely want to read it now. It’s kinda a shame that I don’t have the time to actually read the entire book before the assignment is due. :/

[alialbadani]

Hi
I have a question
The Sorrow of War is about military and political conflict, but it also a history of a dysfunctional relationship. Why is this couple so unhappy, and to what extent are their repeated separations a result of war?