Cacciato by Tim O'Brien [...] meaning of war in the book, and how war affects the soldiers. O'Brien sees the Vietnam War experience as one that lasted far longer than the actual fighting, and he shows just how devastating war can be to the men and women who experience it. This book is more than a testament against war, however. It is also an engrossing look into the minds and experiences of soldiers, and how they manage to block out the horrors of war by dreaming, fantasizing, and looking inward so they can ignore the realities of war that surround them.

This novel centers around just one imaginary day in the life of Paul Berlin, a soldier in Vietnam on a bizarre mission. In his dreamlike imagination, he and his comrades are trailing a deserter named Cacciato, who is bent on reaching Paris for the Paris peace talks by walking...
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