Tim OBrien - The Things They Carried精品.docVIP

The Things They Carried Tim OBrien This is a work of fiction. Except for a few details regarding the authors own life, all the incidents, names, and characters are imaginary. This book is lovingly dedicated to the men of Alpha Company, and in particular to Jimmy Cross, Norman Bowker, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Henry Dobbins, and Kiowa. CONTENTS The Things They Carried 2-14 Love 14-15 Spin 15-18 On the Rainy River 18-29 Enemies 29-30 Friends 30-31 How to Tell a True War Story 31-40 The Dentist 40-41 Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong 41-54 Stockings 55 Church 55-57 The Man I Killed 57-61 Ambush 61-62 Style 62-63 Speaking of Courage 63-72 Notes 72-75 In the Field 75-83 Good Form 83 Field Trip 84-87 The Ghost Soldiers 87-102 Night Life 102-104 The Lives of the Dead 104-end This book is essentially different from any other that has been published concerning the late war or any of its incidents. Those who have had any such experience as the author will see its truthfulness at once, and to all other readers it is commended as a statement of actual things by one who experienced them to the fullest. —John Ransoms Andersonville Diary The Things They Carried First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. They were not love letters, but Lieutenant Cross was hoping, so he kept them folded in plastic at the bottom of his rucksack. In the late afternoon, after a days march, he would dig his foxhole, wash his hands under a canteen, unwrap the letters, hold them with the tips of his fingers, and spend the last hour of light pretending. He would imagine romantic camping trips into the White Mountains in New Hampshire. He would sometimes taste the envelope flaps, knowing her tongue had been there. More than anything, he wanted Martha to love him as he loved her, but the letters were mostly chatty, elus