"The Things They Carried" by Tim Obrien.

A few months ago, I found a list in GQ magazine of 45 books everyone should read. About The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, the author of the article wrote, "(The book is) Vietnam with the bandage ripped off and not yet healed."# In his book, Tim O'Brien does to the reader what the war did to him; it makes everything real. Even out of all of the movies that I've ever seen on Vietnam, …

…get more tangible memories from an author's explanation of an event or happening than any scene I could remember from even the most beautifully created film. O'Brien's The Things They Carried is a reminder of what happened, but it is truly an account given directly, of what happened, minus the bias. O'Brien's mission in writing this book was to tell a story. He tells a story, and in his best account, he retells a war.