Jon Verzilli

A soldier's own story.

Reviewed: 02-09-15

Where does Going After Cacciato rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

As a story, it's near the top, though the production lets it down a bit.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Going After Cacciato?

There's a poignant level of mindfulness about what happened in Vietnam in this book, an attention to detail and character. O'Brien, like in his other books, has more questions than answers, questions both provoking and haunting. There are a few stories going on at once in "Going After Cacciato" and each of the layers is appealing and interesting. The narrative asks about war, "duty" and mission, finding good in awful circumstances, and why soldier's don't run.

Would you be willing to try another one of Kevin T. Collins’s performances?

I felt as if the voice performance brought a level of cartoonishness to the reading that was uneccesary and didn't match up with the subject matter. The voices Collins chooses for the characters, for example, are pretty poor. He just doesn't give the prose much flow, it's almost read as if it has the density of a poem - and while the writing is quite poetic at times, the reading is too choppy and "sing-song" for my liking.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Both reactions will happen, simultaneously and endlessly.

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