Going After Cacciato: A Novel

Amazing! Totally enjoyed it! What happens when a platoon makes a decision to follow and capture one of their guys who left the war (deserter? crazy? whatever) by foot to Paris, France. They all say it's impossible, insane, delusional, whatever, but they go after Cacciato village after village, country after country...seeing him at times with binoculars one mountain top ahead of them. Will he make it to Paris (from war-ridden Vietnam)? Will they follow all the way to Paris? The journey is absolutely a literary tour de force, inventive and surreal to the very bones! But you must read it at least twice to fully understand it and enjoy it. Not a simple story. Amazingly crafted! Genial!

Good true story

Tim O'Brien uses an elaborate three-part structure to tell the story of Paul Berlin, whereby three intertwined arcs combine to tell a soldier's story. The first arc is the most literal, where Paul Berlin is on night watch in a guard tower while his squad mates sleep. Berlin makes a small yet monumental choice: rather than wake his squad mates to perform their shift, he takes the entire night to keep the watch himself and dreams his story about the road to Paris. This second arc, the Road to Paris, takes place mostly in Berlin's mind--but intentionally begs the question, `what is real and what is imagined.' It begins with a real event, Cacciato's desertion, but after a perfunctory chase that concludes with his lieutenant informing headquarters that Cacciato is missing in action, the events of this narrative take place in Berlin's mind.Shortly after midnight, Berlin wades into the sea and contemplates his guard tower: "an observation post with nothing to observe." What is really under observation is Paul Berlin's experience in the Vietnam War, both how it happened and how it might have happened. Control is a constant motif throughout the novel, whether exerted by Lieutenant Martin ordering the soldiers to certain death in the tunnels, seeking control by chasing Cacciato to return him to the ordered existence of Army life, or the control of Berlin's story.In the real war, he has no control, but in the guard tower he takes control. Literally, he does not wake the others and return to his rightful sleep; he remains awake, voluntarily assuming the burden of the entire night's watch. Figuratively, takes charge of ordering and explaining events. He asks himself, "what happened, and what might have happened." The Vietnam War exacted a monstrous toll: on the civilians who suffered its wrath, the soldiers on both sides who inflicted this carnage, and even the societies that were irrevocably changed by it. In light of this, O'Brien demonstrates the importance of both these questions.

Author Tim O'Brien has been obcessed with Viet Nam since he was there. Reading The Things They Carried was enough for me. It was full of poignant portraits and is the best of these books. I learned about Going After Cacciato while reading How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Thomas Foster alludes to several story references woven through Cacciato that made it sound intriguing. It is to a degree.....but it meanders, gets lost a lot, and is not as coherent as Things They Carried.

I returned to this book after many years. When I first read it, shortly after its publication, I was impressed and anxious to read his other titles that had slipped by me. In fact, for a number of years I included The Things They Carried in the commmunity college US history courses I taught. O'Brien is a brilliant writer who is capable of transporting his readers into a world that only someone who lived it can depict with accuracy, humor and a deep respect for the warriors.

This was my second read of the book. I first read it 36 years ago in college where I had lunch with Mr O’Brien. I really liked the book the first time and after serving in the Army for 28 years, had a greater appreciation for the book even more.

As usual, Tim O'Brien's writing is first-rate and that is what garners this novel of Vietnam an extra half-star. Overall, the story is well-crafted. In certain parts, however, the story jumps around overmuch such that the reader might not know if he or she is in a flashback or not. (There are three "timelines" in the book.) The flashbacks, in fact, are probably the most interesting, and are relayed primarily through the perspective of Specialist Four Paul Berlin. Another part of the story takes place at night in a watchtower on an isolated beach, while the third follows Berlin and his group of fellow soldiers in pursuit of Cacciato, who deserts his team in order to make his way overland to Paris. All of these timelines are visited and revisited throughout the novel.If this is the first Tim O'Brien novel you've read, then you won't be disappointed by his other Vietnam works such as The Things They Carried [Paperback] and If I Die in a Combat Zone : Box Me Up and Ship Me Home which are better. There are aspects of "Going After Cacciato" which are unrealistic and not fully fleshed out. Although the reason for this becomes clear by the close of the book, I was left with a disappointed feeling. O'Brien is still, however, head and shoulders above many other writers out there. Recommended with the caveat that you lower your expectations for "Going After Cacciato," pay attention to the timelines (particularly the watchtower part) and enjoy the ride.

Tim O'Brien is a master writer. His books have interesting threads woven through them, and he asks us to examine the hard questions about moral issues, personal beliefs, and how our family, community values, and personal choices inform the direction our lives. In this book the dual ending statements about what makes us complicit as individuals is both thought provoking and deeply relevant.

This is the first novel I have read by Tim O'Brian. And I found it wonderful. It is brilliant, tender, a portrait of an aspect of the war little talked about: the imagination of the soldier during the time they are not fighting,

Tim O'Brien reaches inside the characters and portrays the horrific landscape of war as few writers are able.As an older male who was fortunate to be born in Canada I would have had to volunteer to participate in the Vietnam war. ( a number actually did )So I will always wonder at the effects of such an experience. The band of brothers in arms that share what no one else can truly comprehend unless they have been as colloquially put " been in the s*** ".

A classic that could only have been written by someone who experienced first hand the full spectrum of human experience and emotion from within the theatre of the Vietnam War. Cacciato, a serving US soldier goes AWOL to make his way by foot from Vietnam to Paris, the paradise in his head. Several of his company are taske to find him. Their paths cross and wane and both go on a journey that noone could ever have predicted.Superbly written, wonderful realistic dialogue and beautifully evoked authentic descriptions of landscape made it a joy to read.

Going After Cacciato (Flamingo)Going After Cacciato describes the Vietnam world from a unique, surreal perspective.At times this novel might appear too slow-paced or difficult to follow due to its flights of fantasy, but the sequence of the action is clear despite its surreal occurrences, and it's worth becoming lost in its strongly imaginative elements. Going After Cacciato does not so much talk about the war as it describes a state of mind and a desire to escape from a world where everything appears devoid of meaning. It's a great read.

Going After CacciatoSchon bald nachdem der Soldat Paul Berlin zum Kampfeinsatz nach Vietnam kommt, erlebt er den grauenvollen Alltag des Krieges hautnah. Seine Kameraden sterben aus Angst vor dem Einsatz, werden auf grausamste Art und Weise verwundet und verstümmelt oder getötet. Er selbst hält das alles aus, erleidet aber vor jeder unmittelbaren Feindberührung eine Art epileptischen Anfall, der verhindert, dass er überhaupt kämpfen kann. Als Cacciato, ein Mitglied seiner Einheit, desertiert, wird er dem Suchtrupp zugeordnet. Nach ein paar Tagen hat der Trupp Cacciato zwar eingekreist und ist zum Zugriff bereit, doch Berlins Anfall verhindert das erfolgreiche Ende der Mission. Der Truppführer beschließt, Cacciato laufen zu lassen, weil "er es ja doch irgendwie schaffen könnte" nach Paris, seinem erklärten Ziel, zu gelangen. Zurück im Camp stellt sich Berlin dann während einer Nachtwache vor, was passiert wäre, wenn der Suchtrupp Cacciato bis nach Paris gefolgt wäre. In seiner Vorstellung bewegt Berlin am Ende seiner imaginären Reise die Frage, wie ein Individuum in diesem Krieg handeln muss. Wie Cacciato flüchten oder wie Berlin in Realität seine Pflicht tun. So zerrissen Berlin innerlich auch ist, entscheidet er sich letztlich doch dafür, seine Pflicht zu tun. -- O' Briens Erzählweise ist unkonventionell und unchronologisch, aber sehr spannend bis zum Schluss, denn der letzte Puzzlestein des vordergründig rätselhaften Romans fällt erst am Ende des Textes in seinen Platz.