Going After Cacciato

by Tim O'Brien
List(s):"Racine Library List"
Category: "Fiction - Historical"
Pages:336
Year of Publication:1978
Date Added:04/29/2009
Date Read:12/06/2009
Notes:During the Viet Nam War, a private named Paul Berlin spends a night on guard duty thinking about his experiences in the war up to that point. A member of his platoon, Cacciato, decided to go AWOL and walk all the way to Paris. Berlin and his platoon follow. Along the way they meet a young refugee girl named Sarkin Aung Wan who travels with them, survive an earthquake and get arrested in Iran. When Berlin won't leave his platoon and set up an apartment with Sarkin, she leaves him.

At the end of the book, we find that the entire walk to Paris was a fantasy. Berlin is still in the war. He'd just been imagining what might have happened if they'd followed Cacciato.
My Rating: 7

Reviews for Going After Cacciato

Review - Going After Cacciato

Pretty good, although the language could have been toned down quite a bit. The descriptions of the walk to Paris were just outrageous enough that I knew it was fantasy, but they were interesting enough that I wanted to know what happened.

Reviewed by Roger on 2009-12-07 07:26:01

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