This modern classic and New York Times best seller was a finalist for
both the 1990 Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award and has
become a staple of American classrooms. Hailed by New York Times as "a
marvel of storytelling", The Things They Carried’s
portrayal of the boots-on-the-ground experience of soldiers in the Vietnam War
is a landmark in war writing.
The soldiers in this collection of stories carried M-16 rifles, M-60
machine guns, and M-79 grenade launchers. They carried plastic explosives, hand
grenades, flak jackets, and landmines. But they also carried letters from home,
illustrated Bibles, and pictures of their loved ones. Some of them carried
extra food or comic books or drugs. Every man carried what he needed to
survive, and those who did carried their shattering stories away from the
jungle and back to a nation that would never understand.