Unabashedly crude and daringly confusing, the Things they Carried is about the Vietnam War -not just about warfare or sob stories of lives lost but of the choices war has given us and the burden that comes with such choices. 
 The book includes a colorful cast of characters from the lovelorn Lieutenant Cross to the Native American Kiowa with his New Testament book. Each character is not used for a moral compass - it's not about if the Vietnam War was worth fighting or now. Rather, it's more about each man's life and the stories that they all can tell to us about - whether or not wisdom and morals or criticism is in there is up to the reader. O'Brien, a veteran of the war, tells of his own experience in the novel as well - and his own moral dilemma on whether or not to join such a controversial war. The book is solid, yet emotional in anecdotal forms - it's told mainly in several stories about serving in Vietnam and all the various soldier deaths along the way. 
 The Things They Carried - the title itself is symbolic of what war brought. Soldiers carried more than personal belongings - hope and love, despair and depression. What's the true magic behind this book is how O'Brien seemingly crafts a heartfelt novel, without resorting to sob story measures. 
 I think any person that reads this novel might come up with a different take on it, and it's simply adds more to the precious value O'Brien embedded in his words. A recommended read, especially for war story fanatics.