The Barracks Thief

Rating:
Summary: A story full of suprises!
Review: I've read and re-read (multiple times) everything Tobias Wolff has written and I think this book is the best. It has the narrative pacing of a suspense novel, with strange, funny yet very human characterizations. The writing is pristine clear. The primary theme is the percieved benefits of conformity by the main character and his undercurrent of resistence to it.

Rating:
Summary: it was interesting because of the characters
Review: The Barracks Thief is a good book because it relates the true story of the soldiers of the Viet Nam war. It also relates how the soldiers act in the Army.

Rating:
Summary: Making it through trails and tribulations
Review: The Barracks Thief was a pretty good book, the plot seemed so real; it dealt with real life situations of a persons life.Wolff did a excellent job on making the reader feel the pain that the boys and the mother were going through after their father left the mother for another women. He touched basis on love, trust, survival and friendship.This wasn't Wolff best book but it was a good book he made his charecters like real people they did things that real people do; he kept the readers attention and that was good for me.In the beginning you would think that the book would be about a man who was having problems with his wife and wanted to leave;that wasn't the case at all Wolff really switched it up on you.Wolff talked about how one of the boys was having trouble in school and wanted to go to college but his grades were not good enough to go so he had to attend a junoir college.The book had a little of comedy,profanity and real life drama,the book touched basis on the everyday relationships of family members.The brothers were not that close in the story but the older brother was more closer to his friends then with his brother.In one chapter of the book the older brother even joined the army to better his life;there he met his two friends that turned out to be a big part of his life to me writing that friendship in the story was good because it showed how friend really stick togeather when times get rough.Wolff did an excellant job on this book i would reccommend this book to any college person that really big on reading long story books this is a great choose because it is short and very interesting.Wolff did a good job on giving full detail on the boys life while they were in the army,this was one of the reasons i thought the book was a good book because Wolff worte it in a true form meaning the things that the boys did or talked about were things that boys today do and say overall i give the book three stars.

Rating:
Summary: I'm interested because this book describes human nature.
Review: This book took Vietnam War to be the background to narrate the story of the barrack's life. The story is about three young paratroopers who are Philip, Hubbard and Lewis. They are from different families, and they have different characters. Everything seems so insignificant and common, but actually it is very natural and lifelike. This book shows perceptive clarity, I understood it.

Rating:
Summary: Making it through trails and tribulations
Review: Two things induced me to read this book: 1) Its brevity, and 2) it's status of having won the prestigious Pen/Faulkner award. I dug the book out from one of my banana boxes and read it in one day. I was amply rewarded. Each page added to the intrigue, and I could hardly wait to see what would become of the characters. I wanted to learn the fate of Lewis, who Wolff characterized as one screwed-up dude. I actually felt sorry for him and wondered what experiences in his life could have produced such behavior. As for Philip, he is irrevocably changed by his experience at Fort Bragg and the Vietnam War. But, in my opinion, the ending came too abruptly. Wolff simply tells, in a few sentences, what becomes of the characters after the war. I think the novel would have been more powerful if Wolff would have shown a few scenes in the lives of each character. After I read the last sentence of the book, I wanted more, more than I got. Maybe an epilogue of sorts. But Wolff atoned for this deficiency by revisiting the symbol of the ammunition dump at the end. Life can be volatile and each experience (spark) in our lives can have explosive consequences.

Rating:
Summary: Barracks Thief--Pen/Faulkner worthy
Review: Two things induced me to read this book: 1) Its brevity, and 2) it's status of having won the prestigious Pen/Faulkner award. I dug the book out from one of my banana boxes and read it in one day. I was amply rewarded. Each page added to the intrigue, and I could hardly wait to see what would become of the characters. I wanted to learn the fate of Lewis, who Wolff characterized as one screwed-up dude. I actually felt sorry for him and wondered what experiences in his life could have produced such behavior. As for Philip, he is irrevocably changed by his experience at Fort Bragg and the Vietnam War. But, in my opinion, the ending came too abruptly. Wolff simply tells, in a few sentences, what becomes of the characters after the war. I think the novel would have been more powerful if Wolff would have shown a few scenes in the lives of each character. After I read the last sentence of the book, I wanted more, more than I got. Maybe an epilogue of sorts. But Wolff atoned for this deficiency by revisiting the symbol of the ammunition dump at the end. Life can be volatile and each experience (spark) in our lives can have explosive consequences.