All Quiet on the Western Front is the story of Paul Baumer, an 18 year old German conscript during the 1914 – 1918 World War. It is remarkable in that it transcends patriotism, country and the individual. Paul is everyman, that is, every soldier, from every country in every war. There is no personal hatred, heroism or jingoism in Paul’s attitude.

The real enemy is death. War and its results, the sufferings of ordinary people, but also the amazing will for survival in the midst of the horrors of war, are Remarque’s themes in this extraordinary novel.

All Quiet on the Western Front reads like a memoir, and indeed Remarque draws on his own experiences as a young conscript, but it is, nevertheless, a novel and a very fine one.

There are very few military details, no expressly political dimension, it is not a history. It is the story of an ordinary soldier and his comrades caught up in the horrors of war and how they cope in those exceptional circumstances.

From the Afterword by Brian Murdoch: “The novel shows us very clearly that war is something else: war is not about heroism, but about terror, either waiting for death, or trying to avoid it, even if it means killing a complete stranger to do so, about losing all human dignity and values, about becoming an automaton; it is not about falling bravely and nobly for one’s country ( ‘he was killed instantly’ was usually a lie), but about soiling oneself in terror under heavy shellfire, about losing a leg, crawling blinded in no man’s land, or (in those telling hospital scenes) being wounded in every conceivable part of the body.”

My Recommendation:

Cons:

It contains scenes of graphic violence. It is not something you would necessarily want to read about again.

Pros:

A very fine anti-war novel. ( )

I am not sure whether my humble writing skills can accurately reflect this masterpiece of a book. All Quiet on the Western Front is hideous, but hideous in a positive way. Books about war should not be sweet and cheery, but should realistically portray the horrors that man inflicts upon himself. Remarque spares the reader nothing - he hits us in the face with the gritty details of life in the trenches, waits for us to recover, and then hits us again. Never have I seen such honesty in a book.

You know when you watch an action movie, and all through the fight scenes or the chase scenes, your heart races? That is the reaction my body had while I was reading All Quiet on the Western Front. That's right: this book had the ability to evoke a physical reaction from me. This is a rarity for me - I generally do not cry while reading, nor do I laugh out loud. Reading tends to be an intellectual experience, not a physical one. Remarque's writing is just so honest, so blatant, that I could feel my heart pounding, my forehead breaking out in a sweat, and my stomach churning.

So, if this book had the power to cause my body to react in a negative way, then why should we read it? The answer - because war is around us every day, it forms huge parts of our past, it exists in our present, and that pattern can only lead us to believe that it will occur in our future. We should not hide from the destruction it brings; instead, we should learn from writers like Remarque, who had first-hand experience in World War I, and who strives to share it with others.

All Quiet on the Western Front is written from a German perspective, and one of its greatest lessons is that every soldier, whether German, French, Russian, Canadian, British, or American, is the same. No civilian ever really wants a war, and yet it is the civilian who fights. When the narrator, Paul, kills a French soldier, he has the ultimate realization:

"Why don't they keep on reminding us that you are all miserable wretches just like us, that your mothers worry themselves just as much as ours and that we're all just as scared of death, and that we die the same way and feel the same pain" (153).

All world leaders should read this book; in fact, all people should read this book. It is a vivid portrayal of the things we do to each other - and the regret that we feel. ( )

The summary of the book does not give it any justice. This story was incredible in it’s realism in its telling of war. You won’t find any romanticize pictures of war here. Nor will you find any heroic battles where the soldiers come out strong and unscratched and happy before writing to their sweethearts about the war. The book is a “real” telling of war, I got the feeling the way the protagonist (the narrator) was telling the story, was like peering into his private journals. The book fascinated me, it also made me feel sad, because not a lot of books or films for that matter focus on the realities of war, the way this story has. Death is a common thing in the book, and there are so many angles the author takes on it, he really was able to show the realities of death in the war. He shows how death and the injured were treated during the war, more of something that is in the way, then anything else. In the scenes where the injured are housed, they are seen in two ways, those who are patched up and then sent back out after they recovered and those who are patched up, but then it’s known they’ll die, so they are removed to the “dying room”. It’s very shocking to read at times. It’s not at all what you would think would happen to those who are injured or dying. The entire story is sad and depressing as we watch the soldier fight in the war and for his survival. One scene when he kills a man at first hand is very powerful and emotion, the author’s writing style is simple, but the realism of it and his characters created a very powerful mood.

A fantastic story of the harsh realities of war, it’s a book that lingers with you, even after your finished.

Review can also be found on my book review blog
http://juliebooks.blogspot.com/2009/0... ( )

I have a very serious love hate relationship with this book. My thoughts and feelings for this book changes by the who I read it as. Reading as a history student I love it because the insight and details are amazing. However, as a typical reader who enjoys the occasional book I absolutely hated this book. The information was pointless and bored me to tears. ( )

Told by view of German soldier during World War I and descibing trench warfare. ( )