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A Review of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried |
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The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, is the type of novel that could be made easily into a movie. The narrative exhilaration that was found initially in Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses was also found in The Things They Carried. (Of course, The Things They Carried was published two years prior to All the Pretty Horses.) Upon re-reading, however, or re-skimming, actually, All the Pretty Horses is less likely to live up to the original excitement generated by its story. The Things They Carried, however, although not perfect in the same way that early Hemingway can be perfect, continues to, upon re-inspection, produce a similar level of exhilaration while still maintaining a level of quality and craft that, in retrospect, All the Pretty Horses does not. |
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