Title: Dude, I just didn't get it
Product review: I thought "In the Lake of the Woods" and "The Things They carried" were amazingly powerful works. But everyone said "Wait until you read Cacciato!" Well, I read it. What the hell? Parts are really good: the troop in Iran, the subplot involving the troop's dead lieutenant, the gradual evolving of Cacciato's character. As a whole, however, there was no coherence or cohesiveness and just a little too much mysticism. Characters using fantasy to overcome grim reality seem to be an important part of O'Brien's work but he pulls out all the stops here.
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