24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
O'brien is an expert prose stylist, September 15, 1999
This review is from: Going After Cacciato (Paperback)
Whether or not this novel is important as a Vietnam novel seems to me to be irrelevant, or at least unimportant to me. "Going After Cacciato" is not simply an allegory of war, but also of the human instinct to join a group or cause. Cacciato represents individualism, self-interestedness, and idealism . He is, himself, and ideal or an aspiration. O'brien's novel changed the way I understand my reality. It challenged me to think outside of the group I was a member of and consider the legitmacy or appropriateness of membership. Read this book.
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27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
War like you've never (or always) seen it, March 30, 2006
This review is from: Going After Cacciato (Paperback)
The Vietnam war continues to bring back painful memories to millions of Americans. Few artists have captured the essence of the war as accurately as Tim O'Brien. In his book, Going After Cacciato, O'Brien tells the tale of Spec Four Paul Berlin and his squad's pursuit of an AWOL soldier named Cacciato. Cacciato decided to leave the war and head for Paris...conveniently located 8,000 miles away. As the squad chases after Cacciato, O'Brien dives into Berlin's first experiences with the war, exposing the fear, courage and attitudes of everyday soldiers. While appearing humorous in nature, which it is at some points, Going After Cacciato is much more than a lighthearted adventure. It takes on the heavy subject of war and its effects on every day soldiers with an intelligent zeal and brutal truthfulness.
O'Brien structures his book in an odd manner, jumping between the chase after Cacciato and flashbacks to various "war stories" involving Berlin and his squad. While at first somewhat jarring, as he usually jumps right when some major action is occurring, eventually it makes for a more interesting and exciting read. The war stories and the Cacciato plot work well together, mixing action sequences and thoughts on war and warfare, so that every chapter (or every other chapter) is fresh material. The inclusion of the war stories also accomplishes two things: 1) It includes Vietnam in the novel, as the majority of the Cacciato sections of the book occur outside of Vietnam; and 2) It gives O'Brien a chance to explore the lessons of war, an opportunity which he takes at every turn.
The majority of the lessons learned in the "war stories" involve the death of a squad member. It's no secret that they died, in fact many of the deaths are alluded to from very early on in the book. Their significance comes not from their death, but from the circumstances surrounding it. From simple lessons such as, " `don' never get shot' " to brutal truths about squad assimilation, and the disturbing yet-sadly-ironic "ultimate war story", O'Brien covers the full threshold of emotions and experiences a soldier can go through during war time. O'Brien's major themes become apparent through these stories as well. His comment on loyalty, procedure, and the value of human life, for example, is brought up repeatedly through story of how "Lieutenant Corson came to replace Lieutenant Sidney Martin." In addition to bringing up his desired themes through the war stories, O'Brien also utilizes the character of Paul Berlin to illustrate the books numerous broader subjects.
Paul Berlin will often question the war and life in general through a stream of consciousness at different points in the novel. These pages take the readers inside the mind of a soldier where they experience his thoughts, fears, hopes, and dreams. Here Berlin considers the disturbing events he and the others witness, "They did not know how to feel. Whether, when seeing a dead Vietnamese, to be happy or sad or relieved...They did not know how to feel when they saw villages burning. Revenge? Loss?...They did not know good from evil". Here he questions the issue of "courage. How to behave. Weather to flee or fight". These pages are often the most intellectually stimulating, and the most haunting. The conclusions that Berlin reaches reveal only a small portion of what it was like to be in Vietnam, but they become some of the most memorable pages within the book.
One of the most appealing aspects of the book is how is it is to read. O'Brien's style is quickly digested and helps to create vivid images within one's head. His ability to paint a picture of war and warfare puts the reader right there with the squad. In one particularly invigorating part of the book, the squad is dropped in a "hot zone". O'Brien repeatedly describes the aircraft gunners firing over and over, "The gunners fired and fired. They fired at everything....and the gunner kept firing...the gunners kept firing", vividly creating the effect of machine guns blazing as the men enter the combat zone. O'Brien's humor also comes out in his descriptions. One of the characters describes the rain-and-human-filled bomb craters a war zone as the "Worlds Greatest Lake Country" (eventually Cacciato attempts to go fishing in such a crater), providing a perfect sarcastic description of the soggy, bombed out fields that comprised the Vietnam battle zones.
For all that Going After Cacciato accomplishes, it has only one fault: It attempts to tackle too many ideas at once. The lists of themes and ideas that O'Brien explores in the novel number in the 20's, and that's a conservative estimate. His attempt to comment on so much in only 300+ pages leaves the reader a bit confused and overwhelmed. If O'Brien were to scale back on a few of his ideas, he could more thoroughly develop each one, thus making the book more effective as a whole. That aside, Going After Caccito is absolutely marvelous. An intelligent blend of humor, drama, memorable characters, situations, and a thorough discussion on the effects of war, Cacciato is more than deserving of it's praise.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
O'Brien's best, December 27, 1999
This review is from: Going After Cacciato (Paperback)
This is one of my favorite novels of all time. I first read it in college, nearly fifteen years ago, and recently picked it up again. It can be read on many levels: a Vietnam story, a discourse on the absurdity of war, a study of human nature, etc.. O'Brien is a gifted writer, and while I also enjoyed The Things They Carried and In the Lake of the Woods, this book remains my favorite.
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