Going After Cacciato

Read from Friday, July 1st to Tuesday, July 5th.

Going After Cacciato, by Tim O'Brien.  I started this book on July 1st, and I have made it my goal to read ten books in the month of July.  I will only read small and medium length books, of course, and so far I am on pace.  Need to read a book every three days, so even though this one took a bit longer (birthday weekend!), the next two were a lot shorter.  Anyway, Going after Cacciato was amazing.  It was talked about at length in How to Read Literature like a Professor, and that is how I found out about it.  It is a war novel, but also a psychological, experimental, and fantasy novel. 

Paul Berlin is the narrator, and he tells the disjointed story of Cacciato, another member in his unit, that one day decided to walk away from the Vietnam war, all the way to Paris.  Berlin relates the news about Cacciato going AWOL to their Lieutenant Corson, and he orders that the entire squad goes after him.  Berlin, Lieutenant, and a few others (Eddie, Stink, Oscar, and Doc) follow Cacciato through the mountains for a day or two, until they have him cornered on a hilltop.  At this point the story begins to get hazy, as Cacciato apparently escapes from that ambush, and continues onto Paris.  The group, including Berlin, continue their chase.

The whole story is not presented in chronological order.  In some chapters, Berlin is on a lookout post on a beach, keeping watch for an entire night, and he relates his thoughts on previous war experiences.  He had been with the squad a few months prior to Cacciato's disappearance.  They had a different lieutenant at that time, Sidney Martin, who made the soldiers check the tunnels prior to bombing them.  This led to two comrades being killed in the tunnels, but still Sidney Martin was stubborn, and insisted upon checking them, and so members of the squad contemplated killing him.  It is not revealed what ultimately happened to him.  Berlin also remembers other members of the squad that were killed, including one that had his face blown off, and another that had a heart attack after stepping on a mine, and literally died of fright.  These stories of the day to day life of Berlin and the other soldiers help to establish the fear and inner turmoil they felt, that ultimately led up to the chase. 

Back on the trail, after Cacciato escapes, they meet a young woman, Sarkin Aung Wan, on the trail traveling with her two aunts and two oxen, one of which is shot to pieces by trigger-happy Stink.  Sarkin is a refugee from the war, and she travels with them, becoming Paul Berlin's lover.  The squad falls into a hole at one point, all the way into an elaborate network of the Vietcong.  They are told they are held hostage, and cannot escape, but Sarkin shows them the way out.  It is simple, you just have to fall up.  This action establishes the story as fictional and not based in reality, and it works very well. 

After the tunnels, they leave the jungle and take a train across India to Delhi, where they stay as tourists for awhile.  The lieutenant falls in love with a woman there, and they have to kidnap him to get him to leave finally.  At this point the hunt for Cacciato is just a formality.  They are a squad of armed, uniformed soldiers venturing across the continent, supposedly still on their mission.  But Paul yearns for Paris himself, and a permanent escape from the horrors of the war.  After India, they spend some time in Tehran, Iran, where they are arrested for not having passports and for espionage, and they are sentenced to be executed.  But at the last moment, Cacciato arrives, gives them a gun, blows up the jail so they can escape, and provides a getaway sports car, and they escape the Middle East.  Cacciato disappears again after the escape, so they are still looking for him, all the way through Athens, Italy, and finally into Paris.

In Paris, the group becomes lackadaisical.  They spend days exploring the city, even though they claim to be looking for Cacciato.  Sarkin and Paul agree to find an apartment and permanently stay in the city.  Paul is conflicted.  He wants to be free and happy, but he also needs to finish his mission, and in the larger picture, the entire war, because the obligation is very strong.  Finally, he does find Cacciato one day, and the group surrounds him in the hotel he is staying at.  In a scene strongly reminiscent of the ambush on the hill, Berlin is terrified, pees his pants, and Cacciato escapes.  The scene is twisted, and it is revealed they are back on the hilltop in Vietnam, and Cacciato's story will never be revealed.  The next day, the squad returns to the war, and they are stationed at a look-out on the beach, where Berlin relates the workings of his imagination. 

This was an amazing, inventive story of what might happen if a soldier just decided to pick up one day and walk to Paris.  There is the external conflict, but also the inner turmoil of freedom and happiness versus obligations to your friends and country.  Much more than a war story, this is in a genre all on its own.  A full five out of five stars.