New York: Houghton, Mifflin (1990). First edition, 1st printing. 8vo. 273 pp. Original charcoal black boards over quarter black cloth, stamped in gold. Unclipped ($19.95) dust jacket shows light wear. Light general edge wear particular to spine ends and corners, spine fading, a few scratches and nicks to gloss. Protected in archival mylar. Light general handling and shelf wear to hardcover, some smudges, nicks to page edges. Interior is clean and unmarked.

Dust Jacket: Very Good

Hardcover: Near Fine

“A collection of linked short stories about a platoon of American soldiers fighting on the ground in the Vietnam War. His third book about the war, it is based upon his experiences as a soldier in the 23rd Infantry Division. Many of the characters are semi-autobiographical, sharing similarities with figures from his memoir If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home. In The Things They Carried, O'Brien plays with the genre of metafiction; he writes using verisimilitude. His use of real place names and inclusion of himself as the protagonist blurs fiction and non-fiction. As part of this effect, O'Brien dedicates The Things They Carried to the fictional men of the "Alpha Company," giving it “the form of a war memoir,” states O’Brien.”