Excellent book - a story that made me think

Famous author of THE THINGS THEY CARRIED...is it war tales alone he writes?

I did not enjoy reading this for school--I did enjoy our in class discussions of it since there is so much to dig into--and I find that I do not care for O'Brien generally.

This was a new author for me and, as I was looking for a good mystery, I was surprised to find myself not only immersed in the mystery at hand that takes place years later, but also in the memories and flashbacks to the Viet Nam War...all based on fact - the My Lai Massacre. The author was there as a soldier shortly after that terrible annihilation of innocents. He knows what our men went through, psychologically, and what drove them to commit such awful carnage, all without dismissing their and their superiors' guilt. A powerful message of the long-lasting effects on such young, unformed men, pushed to their limits, haunted throughout their lives by the orders prescribed to them by war. Powerful and engaging. I will be reading more of Tim O'Brien's work.

Winner of the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for 1993.

A sad story of ruined lives; a sad childhood, the horrors of the Vietnam war, misplaced ambitions. Very well written, reads like a mystery.

Have to agree with rural_librarian. I'm not a fan of mysteries, but this book is both well-written and riveting. I often read a book and a few months later can recall whether I enjoyed it or not, but can't really retell the plot details very well. This is one of those rare books that has a very memorable story line. Read it!

Good book with an interesting story - characters are believable.

I could not put this book down!
Great suspense! Excellent writing!

Loved this book. I'm not usually a fan of mysteries or suspensful stories, but this book had me hooked from beginning to end. Tim O'Brien creates such a compelling lead character, I had to race to the finish to find out what happens. I highly recommend anything by Tim O'Brien, and this book is a great introduction to one of America's best fiction writers.