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The Things They Carried

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The Things They Carried

By: Tim O'Brien
Narrated by: Bryan Cranston
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About this listen

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 The 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. Now, three-time Emmy Award winner Bryan Cranston, star of the hit TV series Breaking Bad, delivers an electrifying performance that walks the book’s hallucinatory line between reality and fiction and highlights the emotional power of the spoken word.

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.

This audiobook also includes an exclusive recording “The Vietnam in Me,” a recount of the author’s trip back to Vietnam in 1994, revisiting his experience there as a soldier 25 years before, read by Tim O’Brien himself.

The Things They Carried was produced by Audible Studios in partnership with Playtone, the celebrated film and television production company founded by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, and producer of the award-winning series Band of Brothers, John Adams, and The Pacific, as well as the HBO movie Game Change.

©1990 Tim O'Brien (P)2013 Audible, Inc. Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Short Stories War & Military Solider Vietnam War Military War Classics

Editorial reviews

Editors Select, October - Bryan Cranston is turning in one of the great television performances as Walter White on the Emmy Award-winning Breaking Bad, so needless to say, I was thrilled to hear that he'd be narrating Tim O'Brien's classic The Things They Carried. I first experienced the book in high school, and to revisit it now with such a gifted performer is an absolute treat. Cranston fully inhabits O'Brien's collection of semi-autobiographical stories about the Vietnam War and brings to it a sense of experience and remembrance as though he were actually there. I've only heard a sample so far, but I'd already consider this one of the top audiobook performances of the year. —Chris, Audible Editor

Critic Reviews

"Cranston may be the most charismatic embodiment of moral ambiguity we currently possess. There was always something comforting as well as menacing in Walter White's voice, and Cranston attacks O'Brien's sober, sinewy prose with slightly scary authority.... [I]f you were a binge-watcher of Breaking Bad it will be no big deal to spend six hours in his company here." ( The New York Times Book Review)
"Structurally the novel gestures to William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, while Ryan's sensitive observations on Irish life seem responsive to the work of his compatriot Patrick McCabe. That Ryan does not look out of place in such literary company is a measure of his achievement." ( The Financial Times)
"The best of these stories--and none is written with less than the sharp edge of honed vision--are memory and prophecy. These tell us not where we were but where we are, and perhaps where we will be. . . . It is an ultimate, indelible image of war in our time, and in time to come." ( Los Angeles Times)
"O'Brien's haunting collection of connected stories about the Vietnam War is more alive than ever in this narration. Bryan Cranston's resonant, sometimes formal, performance often leaves the listener reeling. Cranston's voice is deep and patient, laying back to let the characters' collective pain take the fore. Memorable scenes include a man's receipt of his draft notice in "On the Rainy River," battle scenes in "The Man I Killed," and aspects of the war's aftermath in "Speaking of Courage." In all the works, Cranston offers a measured, compassionate voice. O'Brien's stories emphasize the importance of telling the truth of war stories, and Cranston's respect for his intent is clear and comforting. At times, his sonorous tone is hypnotic, but this is more an asset than a liability. All the better to make the listener feel." ( AudioFile)

What listeners say about The Things They Carried

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deeply disturbing imagary of a horror war

I have read a bit on the Vietnam War but this was a deeply personal perspective related without out the Hollywood touch thanks very much. I was left feeling quite ill at some points. I would read / listen again.

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Bryan Cranston was a pleasure to listen too

if not for Cranston this story would have been lost. the author seems to be in a lot of pain. I admire the author for writing about Nam and his personal struggle and Cranston for giving it a voice.

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Beautifully written and powerful

The style and the language are so lovely and the topic so jarring that the juxtaposition has real power. i loved it.

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Profile Image for Mike Webb

Amazing narration, hit and miss story

I could listen to Bryan Cranston narrate this story forever. He was fantastic. I found the book itself a bit hit and miss - it seemed a little repetitive and while it got going in parts, left me unfulfilled.

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Bryan Cranston’s performance elevates this audiobook to an unprecedented level

Headline says it all. Cranston is amazing. This is a must for anyone who is interested in first hand war accounts and/or the Vietnam war.

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Only those who were there truly understand.

A great read, the author writes how they were thinking. Great narration by Bryan Cranston. It took you there. Pointless waste of lives on both sides.

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A classic for a reason

I got this book because of a hardcore album by Have Heart that has the same name. I'm glad they used the name because this is an excellent book. It's powerful, eye-opening and written very elegantly. Definitely one of the best war books I've read and I've read stacks.

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An account, personal, yet not personal.

Vivid recounts from points of view that have you seeing through soldier's eyes. In The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien takes the stories, the facts, the fiction, the reality and the experiences of the Vietnam War and chisels them into a narrative that effectively leaves room for the reader to experience emotion, terror and fear, the tension and its release, the war and it's end.

A elegy, a eulogy, a testament and/or an indictment - engagingly read by Bryan Cranston.

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Very good, loved it

As good as the book was, the reading by Tim after it was better. Definitely one of my favourite books to date.

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Profile Image for James Mahoney

Moving, sad, funny, awful and good listening

Mandatory for anyone thinking of going on deployment in an armed conflict. Tim gives such colour and honesty to his account it is difficult to describe any one overriding emotion, more like a mix or many layers of emotional response. I feel this would be a terrific book to read and discuss in school, and it's a shame I've come to the book later in life. Recommended reading.

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