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Young Adult Nonfiction
If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home

If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home

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If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home

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Author(s)

Tim O'Brien

Publisher

Crown Books

Genre(s)

Biography or Autobiography

Age Range

16+

Release Date

May 28, 1973

ISBN

0767904435

Buy This Book

Before writing his award-winning Going After Cacciato, Tim O'Brien gave us this intensely personal account of his year as a foot soldier in Vietnam. The author takes us with him to experience combat from behind an infantryman's rifle, to walk the minefields of My Lai, to crawl into the ghostly tunnels, and to explore the ambiguities of manhood and morality in a war gone terribly wrong. Beautifully written and searingly heartfelt, If I Die in a Combat Zone is a masterwork of its genre.

User reviews

2 reviews

Overall rating

3.5

Writing Style

3.5(2)

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

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Military Lovers Book

July 03, 2005 (Updated: June 25, 2026)

Overall rating

3.0

Writing Style

3.0

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N/A

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Reader reviewed by Jersey

I do not enjoy Militay only books and this one is based on some of the stories from Vietnam. O'Brian( the author) did this book amazinliy well for what it is and anyone that enjoys combat and military will hopefully enjoys this one as well.

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Hard-hitting Memoir

September 16, 2004 (Updated: June 25, 2026)

Overall rating

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

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N/A

Learning Value

N/A

Reader reviewed by Bookworm9

If Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" is fiction that reads like autobiography, then "If I Die in a Combat Zone..." is an autobiography that reads like fiction. It's not that O'Brien's story is unbelievable, just that he writes it in a very literary way. It's a well-written and indepth portrayl of life as an American soldier in Vietnam, and we get to hear about O'Brien's fears and near-desertion. However, he never quite reaches the breath-taking realism of the later "The Things They Carried," which is, in my opinion, the better book.

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