The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction

233 pp. "One of the first questions people ask about The Things They Carried is this: Is it a novel, or a collection of short stories' The title page refers to the book simply as "a work of fiction," defying the conscientious reader's need to categorize this masterpiece. It is both: a collection of interrelated short pieces which ultimately reads with the dramatic force and tension of a novel. Yet each one of the twenty-two short pieces is written with such care, emotional content, and prosaic precision that it could stand on its own.