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Summary: A Soldier's Story
Review: After finishing Gunter Grass' "My Century", in which Remarque is among the characters, I decided to finally get to this book that has grown into a required high school reading anti-war manifesto.Before getting to the book itself, it is important to note that the author wrote this book approximately a decade after the end of he First World War, to personally cope with the repressed memories of this diabolical war in the trenches and not as an anti-war manifesto. As such any politicized view, possibly due to the book's ban in Germany after Hitler's rise to power, pulls this very direct and heart wrenching fictionalized biography out of it's context. As the first "modern war" the conflict between 1914 and 1918 gave the world a taste of to what atrocious use the evolving fruits of the industrial revolution could be put when turned against mankind. The use of early machine guns, toxic gasses and early fighter planes resulted in a catastrophic slaughter. Whereas Celine in his "Voyage au bout the la nuit" described his involvement in this war as a symbol of the chaotic and meaningless human existence, Remarque focuses mainly on the process of dehumanization that results from active involvement in the war. Starting with the opening scene in which the soldiers enjoy a double ration meal after half of their group has been killed in battle, through the painfully accurately described battle scenes and the hospital episode, the main theme is illustrated in a way that has few equals in literature. While many aspects of this book have been picked up in other books and movies, ranging from the great, like "Full metal jacket", to the pathetically self conscious, like "The thin red line", the book's focus on the acts and consequences of war from the soldier's perspective without delving in the justification of the actions gives it it's lasting power. While the text has no weaknesses -it is hard to believe that Remarque wrote this text while working as a society reporter- the scene of his sharing of a manhole with a French soldier, who slowly succumbs to the wounds that the protagonist has inflicted upon him, deserves a place among the summits of world literature. In short: required reading. I think the translation is adequate, but greatly advise to get the original at the German Amazon site.
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Summary: A chilling message
Review: One has to read this book in these times and realize how important its message. Though it is told from the perspective of a German soldier in the World War, he goes through the same exact things that every other soldier on the planet goes through in times of war. The prose is chillingly objective. It's interesting how the men become animals in times of battle, but cease to lack a single emotion once they have left the battlefield. It makes one thing of the lost youth that every generation has, had, and will have in the times yet to come. When the story reaches its inevitable end, the reader is shocked with the power of Remarque's message. One could not have written it better.
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Summary: all quiet/the road back
Review: ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT is a wonderful book. i highly recommend it to anyone with preconceptions about war. but how many of you are aware of the sequel to ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, namely THE ROAD BACK? this seldom discussed book is just as good as its predecessor...some (myself included) say better! of course, paul is dead, so one won't read about him in THE ROAD BACK. However, remarque gives a brutally honest portrayal of post-traumatic stress disorder and other obstacles combat survivors face "back in the world." remarque also spies the awful turn germany is about to take back into hell...as the book is written in 1933, the year hitler seized the german chancellorship. this is an absolutely haunting book. please read THE ROAD BACK (after ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, of course) and pass it on when finished. very important subject matter! hitler had both books burned!
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Summary: A remarkable view of humanity in a man made hell
Review: Often touted as the classic war novel of all time, All is Quiet on the Western Front is a profound look at the nature of war and its effect on men. Yes, it is an anti-war novel, but that is not the theme I would like to explore in this review; rather, I would want to look at Remarques insight on both the dehumanizing effect of war on man, and surprisingly how war brings out the best men can offer. Do not get me wrong- Remarque does not make the case for war, but in the midst of the utter brutality of war when men are being dehumanized, our heroes find humanity. The dehumanizing of the soldiers begins in boot camp. It is there that the process of dehumanization begins. Remarque writes: At first astonished, then embittered, and finally indifferent, we recognized that what a matter is not the mind, but the boot brush, not intelligence but the system, not freedom but drill. As Paul and his friends are being drawn into the maelstrom of war a place where reason and intellect give way to the brutal instincts of survival. Paul comments: We reach the zone where the front begins and become in the instant animals. We have become wild beasts- we defend ourselves against annihilation. They kill not for country, nor for ideology, but for survival. Paul has nothing against his enemies- he realizes that they are men just as he. He kills to survive. He kills out of fear. Nowhere is this more dramatically demonstrated than when Paul kills the French solider in the shell hole in no-mans land where he took shelter. As the French soldier lies dying, Paul regrets what he has done; he promises the dying soldier that he will look up his family after the war. This is perhaps the most poignant moment in the novel. At this moment our protagonist Paul is remarkable like the Apostle Paul of the New Testament wishing himself accursed if only his country men could be saved. The difference between enemy and friend is the command they receive. He does not hate his enemy; it is self-preservation, nothing more. He kills so he may live. What is astonishing is that when Paul has opportunity to free himself from this man-made hell, he chooses to return to the front. Why? He cannot abandon his friends. But in the end this altruism is meaningless. In the end, they all die. On a day when the front is calm, when it is reported that all is quiet on the western front, he falls, felled by an enemys bullet. Paul's death is meaningless. This is a powerful novel and should be must reading for everyone.
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Summary: Great book that chronicles the realities of war.
Review: This book is one of those that anyone who enjoys reading should have in their own personal library of books. This book is a master piece of literature. It succeeds in drawing in the reader into the horrors of the no-man's land which encompassed much of the War World I experience for the average infantry men on the Western Front. It's depictions of war and the cruelty that men inflict upon each other is second to known in my honest opinion. This book makes no attempt to protect the reader from the visual horrors that awaited on the battlefields of World War I. The writer of this book, Erich Maria Remarque ( who also fought in War World I ) also does not attempt to hide the permanent scarring of the souls of the soldiers who fought and witnessed the carnage of War World I. When once there were boys who were sent off to fight for god and country you now end up with hard, cruel and almost animal like men who only dream of survival for just one more day. To cheat or out wit death is the goal of every soldier on the Western Front. Yet they also know that life for them will never be the same if they survive the horrors of the "Front" after this great and traumatizing experience of modern day trench warfare. Most entered the service drafted in as boys in both body, mind and spirit but eventually this just becomes only a distant fading memory of gentler and more free spirited days. Days of which are long dead and gone amongst the barb wire, filthy rat infested mud filled trenches, gas attacks, continual artillery barges, constant machine gun and rifle fire along with the ever present dead foul smelling bodies of fallen comrades and enemy soldiers alike. I recommend this book to all the young men and women who think that war is just a game or a adventure to be had. This book will open many a young mind in it's frankness and truthful depiction of war and it's cruelty.
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Summary: Puts you right in the action
Review: I've always been told that words can't describe what war is really like. After reading this novel, I know that that is absolutely not the case. Erich Remarque did a fabulous job of describing his experiences in WWI. In my mind, I could picture every explosion, every trench, every deer-in-the-headlights expression on every man's face. It was an incredible novel to read, and it truly shed some light on a war I otherwise knew nothing about. I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone, especially those who love war novels. You will not be disappointed.
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Summary: "it is noble and good to die for one's country"
Review: _All Quiet on the Western Front_ is loosely based on the personal experiences of Erich Maria Remarque; its honest and unflinching look at the horrors of modern, mechanized warfare make it a classic. The story is one of youthful idealism and its romanticization of war, the friendships of classmates and comrades in arms, the beauty of being young and strong - and the terrible waste of a generation that the First World War was in the face of these true but misguided sentiments. Remarque, like the Englishman Wilfred Owens, shows the old lie for what it is - that there is nothing noble or good in death, even for one's country. It is a powerful book, simply and elegantly written. I highly recommend it.
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Summary: Excellent...
Review: This book is brilliant...one of the best, if not the best, anti-war novels ever written. Not much else I can say about it, except that I would recommend a viewing of the film from 1930, with Lew Ayres as Paul Bäumer, as a supplement to the book.
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Summary: A damn good book
Review: Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. If you're plannning to buy a book one of these days, this will be it. Don't borrow it from the library, BUY IT. Because it's worth every cent you spent.
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Summary: Timelessly relevant . . .
Review: ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT should be required reading for all world leaders with the power to put their young in harm's way. ALL QUIET is set in World War I, but most of its principles are timelessly applicable to all war. Here are just a few: (1.) Opposing soldiers in war often have more in common with each other than they do with their own political leaders. As Paul (the main character and narrator) says in ALL QUIET shortly after making his first hand-to-hand kill: "I did not want to kill you . . . . But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind . . . . It was that abstraction I stabbed. But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. . . . . Why do they never tell us that you are just poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony . . . ." (2.) Those who have never served their country in combat, and are now beyond the likely age of being called to do so, are often the most rabid "patriots," quick to support armed conflict. In ALL QUIET, Paul describes his teacher giving long lectures until the whole class went under his shepherding and volunteered. Only one youth openly hesitated, and he quickly reconsidered knowing he would otherwise be ostracized. Others thought as he did, but no one could very well stand out because even one's parents were ready with the word "coward." (3.) The true war objectives of the various world leaders responsible for war are often withheld, misconstrued, or unclear. In ALL QUIET the soldiers have the following conversation: "What exactly is the war for?" "There must be some people to whom the war is useful." "Well, I'm not one of them." "Not you, nor anybody else here." "Who are they then? It isn't any use to the Kaiser. He has everything he can want already." "I'm not so sure about that. He has not had a war up till now. And every full-grown emperor requires at least one war, otherwise he wouldn't become famous." There are still numerous other timeless principles of war described in ALL QUIET, but I will leave those for you to discover on your own. Suffice it to say that anyone truly interested in viewing war from the soldier's perspective must read this novel.
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