A review by corneliadolian
Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien
2.0
Full disclosure: I might just not be into absurd/ridiculous war literature. I've been unable to make it through Catch-22.
You know how some books are a bit difficult to get into, but once you're solidly in they're really good? This was the opposite. I had little trouble grabbing onto this imaginative war novel, but boy did I have a hard time going back. The problem was that I didn't feel invested in the story-within-the-story that took up more time than the actual narrative. I'm talking about the parts where they actually go after Cacciato, traveling across Vietnam and other places. The parts I found most interesting were the parts in Vietnam, in the war, and the backstory bits on Paul Berlin and others. All of that was amazing. But it comprised maybe 25% of the novel, while the rest was this ridiculous journey toward Paris that I quickly got bored with. Oh, and the characters became caricatures and the single female in the novel was so annoying I kept hoping she'd die.
I get that O'Brien was trying to make statements about the Vietnam War: all the humping the soldiers did, how the mission was more often than not nebulous and maybe it seemed like the laws of the world didn't apply. But I think that could've been done without the extremely elaborate and draggy heading-to-Paris fantasy. Also, the fact that it was a fantasy annoyed me and diminished my interest.
You know how some books are a bit difficult to get into, but once you're solidly in they're really good? This was the opposite. I had little trouble grabbing onto this imaginative war novel, but boy did I have a hard time going back. The problem was that I didn't feel invested in the story-within-the-story that took up more time than the actual narrative. I'm talking about the parts where they actually go after Cacciato, traveling across Vietnam and other places. The parts I found most interesting were the parts in Vietnam, in the war, and the backstory bits on Paul Berlin and others. All of that was amazing. But it comprised maybe 25% of the novel, while the rest was this ridiculous journey toward Paris that I quickly got bored with. Oh, and the characters became caricatures and the single female in the novel was so annoying I kept hoping she'd die.
I get that O'Brien was trying to make statements about the Vietnam War: all the humping the soldiers did, how the mission was more often than not nebulous and maybe it seemed like the laws of the world didn't apply. But I think that could've been done without the extremely elaborate and draggy heading-to-Paris fantasy. Also, the fact that it was a fantasy annoyed me and diminished my interest.