classics

All Quiet on the Western Front is the best WW1 novel that I have ever read. The book provides wonderful insight into the trials and tribulations of a common soldier. This book was very enjoyable to read because Remarques' ability to tell how the people who did the fighting thought and acted. Paul, the main character, is a volunteer soldier who is caught in the midst of war. He tells of how he and his fellow soldiers share the special bond that only they have. They debate over the purpose of war and why they fight. They worry about what this war has done to them, and what they will do when the war ends.

The book has graphic depictions of the horror of being on the battlefield. Although it is impossible for me to know that fear, I think the author does an excellent job of helping me picture the people in those situations. There is a frequent theme that war is for the elite returns periodically. The point of view is one of the best things of the book. It shows how gruesome war can be from a German soldier's perspective. It is easy to sympathize with the main character as his closest friends are killed.

This book isn't for the squeamish. Men die in many ways, and Remarque describes most of them. The descriptions of being out in the trenches are outstanding. But the book is a classic for a reason, and I think everyone should read it.

I was supposed to read this novel around 25 years ago, for a high school English class, and decided to skip it and just read the back cover and take notes in class. Turns out the joke was on me. I finally got around to reading this classic book, and let's just say that it's all the good things you've heard about and will read about below. The story is told simply but powerfully. One memorable scene follows another, and the battle scenes are particularly strong and at times even overpowering. But somehow the strongest scenes describe our protagonist--Paul's--thoughts when he realizes, during quieter moments, such as when on leave, that the war has changed him and made him no longer able to fit into society. And the scene where Paul shares a shellhole with a dying French soldier, and contemplates on the brotherhood of man, and on our universal commonality, and of the utter uselessness of war, is so memorable that...well, if you don't get a lump in your throat while reading this scene, you're better than me! Me recommending this book to you is like someone saying "Citizen Kane" is a good movie or that the Beatles were a swell group. Let's just say that if you deprive yourself of this emotionally moving reading experience, as I did for so many years, you'll really be missing out. 'Nuff said.

I recently found my [very] old high school copy of this book, and I remembered writing a very appreciative report about it for my eleventh grade English class. Not having anything else convenient to read along my subway ride to work, I started reading it again, after 31 years. And now I remember why my eleventh grade report was so glowing.

Erich Maria Remarque's ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT grabs you by the throat and stomach and doesn't let go, as you are drawn into the blood- and mud-soaked trenches of World War One. Young Paul Baumer, the protagonist, is at first proud and fearless, as he prepares to make a man of himself in the German army. This bravado doesn't last too long. Each battle grows more and more fierce, until this book becomes an unrelenting apocalypse of graves yielding up their dead in mortar attacks. As Paul moves through the trenches, they are nothing less than Dante's circles of the Inferno. It doesn't take Paul too long to discover that wars are fought not for ideals but for old men hungry for power, and will let the young men of their nations die for that hunger.

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT has earned its reputation not just as a great war novel but as a great critique of humanity's follies and cruelties. This is a powerful book.