Going After Cacciato

Amazon.com

"In October, near the end of the month, Cacciato left the war."

In Tim O'Brien's novel Going After Cacciato the theater of war becomes the theater of the absurd as a private deserts his post in Vietnam, intent on walking 8,000 miles to Paris for the peace talks. The remaining members of his squad are sent after him, but what happens then is anybody's guess: "The facts were simple: They went after Cacciato, they chased him into the mountains, they tried hard. They cornered him on a small grassy hill. They surrounded the hill. They waited through the night. And at dawn they shot the sky full of flares and then they moved in.... That was the end of it. The last known fact. What remained were possibilities."

It is these possibilities that make O'Brien's National Book Award-winning novel so extraordinary. Told from the perspective of squad member Paul Berlin, the search for Cacciato soon enters the realm of the surreal as the men find themselves following an elusive trail of chocolate M&M's through the jungles of Indochina, across India, Iran, Greece, and Yugoslavia to the streets of Paris. The details of this hallucinatory journey alternate with feverish memories of the war--men maimed by landmines, killed in tunnels, engaged in casual acts of brutality that would be unthinkable anywhere else. Reminiscent of Joseph Heller's Catch-22, Going After Cacciato dishes up a brilliant mix of ferocious comedy and bleak horror that serves to illuminate both the complex psychology of men in battle and the overarching insanity of war. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

"To call Going After Cacciato a novel about war is like calling Moby-Dick a novel about whales."

So wrote the New York Times of Tim O'Brien's now classic novel of Vietnam. Winner of the 1979 National Book Award, Going After Cacciato captures the peculiar mixture of horror and hallucination that marked this strangest of wars.

In a blend of reality and fantasy, this novel tells the story of a young soldier who one day lays down his rifle and sets off on a quixotic journey from the jungles of Indochina to the streets of Paris. In its memorable evocation of men both fleeing from and meeting the demands of battle, Going After Cacciato stands as much more than just a great war novel. Ultimately it's about the forces of fear and heroism that do battle in the hearts of us all.

Customer Reviews:

Leaving a War.......2007-05-31

Cacciato walks away from the war, away from Vietnam. He has an atlas and is determined to go to Paris - across India and Persia, through Greece. You know the way. The lieutenant takes his squad and follows him, determined to bring him back.

This is a surreal journey through the countryside of imagination and through the minds of unwilling participants in a senseless war. This is a hazy hallucination, a drug induced introspection, a rambling question without answer. It's a very good book as well. O'Brien captures the mood of Vietnam and its dangers and the simple desires of men who don't want to die, who don't want to climb down into tunnels. His brief sentences and exquisite pacing bring this world alive for the reader.

Going After Cacciato is a fantasy escape from reality, a shared dream of American men in an unfriendly land. It's prompted by the excesses of brutality and the fear that never stops - heart racing always on guard, never safe - the fear that causes men to wish for an easier mission in an easier land.

Well worth the time to read this. To understand that war heroes and combat veterans don't want to be either.

- CV Rick

a mix of realism and fantasy.......2007-05-07

Going After Cacciato has some astonishingly harsh, violent observations about war and the men who fight them, but for a "war" novel it has a surprisingly deft touch. There are moving passages about love and friendship, home and domestic life. Really, the full range of human expression about life is explored in this novel, and not merely the situational elements of Vietnam. The imaginative passages of chasing Cacciato becomes for O'Brien an escape valve for the war, a way to play out, in a vast space of complete possibility, what war and peace mean, and its ultimate cost on the people who wage it.

Great book!.......2007-03-26

this book is very well written and enjoyable. It isn't a book about war at all. There are 3 very interesting and seperate stories being told simultaneously.It is still very organized even though there are 3 different stories being told. Highly recommended book!

War Fiction turns Magic Realism, and loses me.......2007-01-03

I hadn't heard of the book or the author before I picked it. I read its first few pages and
Was hooked. The main character, Cacciato [how do you pronounce this name?], decides to walk away from the Vietnam war and hike overland to Paris. His platoon follows him.
The book describes their adventures.
The first quarter of the book contains some of the best combat narrative I have read, it describes the trauma, the randomness, the banality, the irritation of involuntarily living cheek-by-jowl with others. This part for me flowed along. I was able to suspend disbelief about the fact that they were on a mission to track down one of their comrades who was walking into enemy territory.
Without giving the story away, there was a point where they came into contact with the Vietnamese enemy, where I gave up entirely. The fiction had become magic realism, there was no going back to credibility and I'm afraid I lost the plot.
I did however persevere and finish, but I cannot recommend it based on my initial impressions. The writing overall is excellent, the characters well-documented, but I cannot follow when the plot doesn't have the pretence of credibility. I would have liked to have liked this book more.

Book Review.......2006-10-27

Bursts of gunfire, mortar explosions all around you, never ending rain, and a hot jungle. This is Vietnam. Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien is a fictional war book that takes place during the Vietnam War. A soldier by the name of Cacciato has deserted his platoon on his odd, imaginary journey of reaching Paris, France. Yes, it does sound odd, but at the time of war, you would do anything to go somewhere that you dream of. As his platoon full of young privates and an old lieutenant follow him, they encounter many difficulties; they are in war and often run into fire fights trying to survive.

This book is highly recommended if you like fictional war books. It has a lot of gory imagery that makes you se what the conditions were like in Vietnam. "The rain fed fungus that grew in the mend's boots and socks, and their socks rotted, and their feet turned white and soft so that the skin could be scraped off with a fingernail..." That was an example of the conditions Vietnam veterans had to face. Passages like those make the book interesting in my point of view.

The whole book is not about Cacciato, but the soldiers chasing him. They all have names like Paul Berlin, Eddie Lazzuti, Doc, and nicknames like Stink and Oscar. This being a war book, they talk a lot of acronyms that, if you don't have military knowledge, you will not know. "Each soldier, he has a different war. Even if it's the same war, it is a different war." This quote by Captain Fahyi Rhallon has a lot of meaning to it. It relates to the book in many ways. It's man vs. himself inside many of the characters.

In my view, this book was a bit slow at parts, but it got interesting with lots of climaxes and exciting parts. The style the author uses is great for this type of genre because he uses tones of war times, where it's quite and suttle, but than lots of things start to happen. If you like ware books, fiction or non-fiction, this book is just right for you.

Average customer rating:

GOING AFTER CACCIATO
Tim O'Brien
Manufacturer: Jonathan Cape,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OPCH0W

Average customer rating:

Going After Cacciato
Tim O'Brien
Manufacturer: Dell Publishing Co., Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000OSXL90

Average customer rating:

Going After Cacciato
Tim O'Brien
Manufacturer: Dell, 1982
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000J0U0I8

Average customer rating:

Going After Cacciato
Tim O'BRIEN
Manufacturer: Plon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ILKCPY

Average customer rating:

Going After Cacciato
Tim O'brien
Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LRETWW

GOING AFTER CACCIATO (Limited Signed Edition)

Average customer rating:

GOING AFTER CACCIATO (Limited Signed Edition)

Manufacturer: Easton Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Leather Bound
ASIN: B000I9NR1C

Average customer rating:

Going After Cacciato

Manufacturer: Turtleback Books Distributed by Demco Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0606278508

Average customer rating:

Going After Cacciato
Tim O'Brien
Manufacturer: Flamingo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O8Q958

Average customer rating:

Going After Cacciato

Manufacturer: Broadway Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000E4R0AA

Amazon.com

Rachel Alexander, PI, and Dash, her pit bull, are back again in a fourth outing of this winning series, which does a lot to counteract the negative image of the breed--the four-footed rather than the flat-footed variety. When Sophie Gordon, an epileptic teacher at a school for deaf children, asks Rachel to find Side by Side, the mysterious organization that cloned her faithful companion Blanche, Rachel finds more than she bargained for, not only more than one carbon copy of Sophie's pet, but a litter of trouble.

Sophie loves Bianca, the supposedly cloned animal Side by Side promised her, but Bianca doesn't seem to have inherited the one trait that makes Blanche so valuable and that others suffering from Sophie's disease require: the ability to warn their owner when a seizure's coming. Concerned that whoever gets the other clones won't be able to rely on them for assistance, she sets Rachel on the trail of the veterinarian who supposedly cloned her pet. Then Sophie dies in what turns out to be murder, and although Rachel no longer has a client, she's determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. Motivated as much by concern for what will happen to Blanche and Bianca now that Sophie's dead, she presses on with her investigation despite her personal misgivings about the implications of cloning and soon finds herself a murder target. This is a smart, carefully paced mystery that has a nice surprise tucked into the conclusion. Rachel's doggy-love seems more important than her feelings for her boyfriend, a dog psychologist, or any other human, but her emotions are entirely believable and likely shared by plenty of others who are owned by their pets. --Jane Adams

Customer Reviews:

Dash is an English Bull Terrier.......2002-02-19

Sophie Gordon, a woman with epilepsy who teaches the deaf has a wonderful pet therapy/aide dog. Her dog is alert to whenever she has a seizure. She loves and depends on her dog.

Enter P.I. Rachel Gordon and her sidekick, Dash. Dash has the trademark anvil shaped head that distinguishes the English bull terrier from the pit bull. Rachel and her anvil headed dog crack the case and yet you wonder -- is Sophie's dog really a clone?

Was Bianca really a clone of Blanche?.......2001-12-15

Sophie Gordon was an epileptic. She used a seizure alert dog to tell her when she was going to have a seizure. The dog was getting old, so when someone approached her in the dog park proposing to clone her dog, she jumped at the chance to have a dog just like Blanche. In due time, she received Bianca, who looked exactly like Blanche. One problem, she did not alert. Sophie wanted to find the people who cloned her, to tell them that the alert trait that they were looking for wasn't there. Enter Rachel Alexander, private investigator and former dog trainer. Sophie hires her and Dash the pitbull to find the organization, so she can inform them. Not long after, Sophie is found dead of a seizure, or was it? There are alot of strange circumstances in this case and Rachel is determined to find out why Sophie died and to place Bianca and Blanche.

Each one of Benjamin's books seems to be better than the last. I just couldn't put this book down. It was very exciting in parts, lots of action, and a very satisfying ending.

Excellent work.......2000-11-08

Sophie Gordon arranged to meet private investigator Rachel Alexander at the Washington Square Park dog run. There, Sophie explains why she needs a sleuth. The School of the Deaf teacher uses a service dog to help her by alerting her when she is going into a seizure. This allows Sophie the time to insure her safety. Her canine Blanche died, but before she did, the Side by Side agency cloned the dog. However, the canine Sophie received, Bianca, is unable to detect seizures. Sophie worries that the other clones will also fail to perform that task and wants the agency to warn their owners. However, the agency seems to have vanished off the planet.

Not to long after that meeting, Sophie dies conspicuously from a seizure. Rachel wonders about the questionable coincidence that her new client should die shortly after she tells the sleuth her tale, especially because Sophie was very careful with her ailment. Rachel feels obligated to find the Side by Side people and accompanied by Dash begins to make inquiries without yet realizing the danger she places herself and Dash in at the hands of unscrupulous individuals.

THE WRONG DOG is an exciting mystery filled with intelligence, humor, and a dash of Manhattan. The enjoyable yet educating story line is fun to read as the plot centers on cloning, disabilities, and an exhilarating investigation by one of the better female detectives as well as one of the better animal detectives in a current series. Fans will want to read Carol Lea Benjamin's other well-written canine tales.

Book Description

From former detective turned noted author and dog trainer, Carol Lea Benjamin, comes the fifth book in the critically–lauded Rachel Alexander mystery series, for the first time in mass market.

Sophie Gordon didn't let her epilepsy get in the way of her life as a teacher of deaf children. But without her trusty canine companion, an indispensable service dog named Blanche, she wouldn't be nearly as well–off. A service dog that can perform the difficult tasks that epilepsy requires––sensing when a seizure is about to occur and fetching life–saving medication––is extremely rare, so when a veterinarian's office promises that they can clone Blanche, Sophie jumps at the opportunity. Her former worries can now be put to rest, knowing that now she'll have a replacement for Blanche when the time comes.

But the puppy they provided didn't have what it takes to be a service dog, and when Sophie visits the vet to alert them of the problem, none of the staff is anywhere to be found––they've disappeared without a trace. To get to the bottom of this clone–by–night operation, Sophie hires P.I. Rachel Alexander and Dash, her pit bull partner. And two days after meeting with Rachel, Sophie is found dead, apparently of a seizure, but it didn't take Dash's sensitive nose to tell that something doesn't smell right, and that the missing vets definitely need further examination.

Customer Reviews:

Dog Books.......2007-07-03

I love mysteries, and if you do, and if you love dogs, you'll enjoy these books by Carol Lea Benjamin. This series is not as much "fun" as Susan Conants, nor Laurien Berensons dog/mystery series, but the mystery is a bit more intense. There also is not as much "dog" information in this series, either, in my opinion, compared to the other two series.

All in all, though, a good read!

The Wrong Dog: A Rachel Alexander and Dash Mystery

Average customer rating:

The Wrong Dog: A Rachel Alexander and Dash Mystery

Manufacturer: Walker & Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HYXXCG

Average customer rating:
The Jaguar Prince
Eugene E. Whitworth
Manufacturer: AdA Editions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Native American | United States | Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Astral Man to Cosmic Christ: A Metaphysical Odyssey

Genesis: The Children of Thoth

Nine Faces of Christ: Quest of the True Initiate

ASIN: 2921892359

Average customer rating:
Le prince Jaguar
Eugene E. Whitworth
Manufacturer: ADA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

All French Books | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 2921892367

Average customer rating:
The Red Jaguar.
Alison Prince
Manufacturer: Encore Editions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0689300638

Average customer rating:
The Jaguar Prince
Eugene E. Whitworth
Manufacturer: Ada Editors Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000PJDLT8

Book Description

DIET TRENDS MAY COME AND GO, BUT ONE THING IS CERTAIN -- CALORIES COUNT!

As battles rage about fat, protein, and carbohydrates, one fact remains unchallenged: too many calories lead to unwanted pounds. Nationally known nutritionists Annette Natow and Jo-Ann Heslin have updated their classic guide with all of the latest information to help you count calories, control weight, and improve your health. You'll discover :

• Calorie counts and portion sizes for more than 20,000 foods in hundreds of categories -- including 90 restaurant chains; take-out, organic, and vegetarian foods; and energy bars and drinks
• How to balance the calories you eat with the calories you burn
• Why water burns calories
• How to handle out-of-control portion sizes
• How watching calories can add years to your life

The Calorie Counter is your trusted guide when you shop, eat out, or grab a quick snack.

Keep it handy!

Customer Reviews:

It's really ALL about calories!.......2005-08-23

Returning to basic nutritional facts and balanced diet
seems to be the best idea for life in today's fast lane.
The Calorie Counter is the best of it's kind that I've seen for a very long time. It has all necessary information for my uses.
I cannot be happier!

Too much label info.......2002-06-19

This calorie counter is full of calories for items that come with labels. i.e. it will have pages and pages of store-bought soups or salad dressings and then will have little or no information on something that doesn't come with a label (i.e. fruit servings) so you have to extrapolate form what they've listed. don't waste your money on something like this. you can read the label yourself.

Not as much information as would have liked.......2000-05-11

I bought this book along with The Complete Book of Food Counts by Corinne T. Netzer. This book (The Calorie Counter) only lists Calories (yes I know that's what the title says!) - I thought that they would list carbs, protein, etc. in addition to calories.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books