All Quiet on the Western Front

Rating:
Summary: ::Throws up:: I'm sorry, no disrespect
Review: Well...I just have to say that....Though this book is the favorite among readers worldwide and is a bestseller, I did not particularly enjoy this book. Some people can say that it showed a realistic perspective of a German soldier in World War II. And I admit it was realistic, but Paul would not detail everything in his mind...After seeing death and horrible things, they would be regular and he would not think of them as more than "Oh, another foolish, dead person"...And about the ending.
People say that it is a good ending...(...)After a whole book of descriptions of deaths of comrades and a large amount of other things, I found deprived of something....I wanted to know what Paul was thinking (...)"I need to kill those enemies"...
But isn't that the point of war? For the soldiers to get into a steady mind thought that keeps them alive...Even if it is repetitious, you need to show that repetition....War is repetitious..., I at least wanted to know HOW he died...it didn't even say it...I mean, that's just kind of mean...you know....
I was thinking that maybe Paul could be in the middle of a thought and then it just cuts off or something....because that is what war is like...It could be like, "Okay, I will pop up over this wall and shoot...what is that shot sound-----" then it could just end....(...)Once his thoughts die, so does the book...No more book...(...)

Rating:
Summary: Must read for all planning to join the Army.
Review: It is terribly shocking and thoughtful book that will testify forever about nonsense of war.
Just consider this excerpt, young soldier's line of thinking:
"...declaration of war should be a kind like a bull fight.
Then in the arena the ministers and generals of the two countries, dressed in bathing-drawers and armed with clubs, can have it out among themselves. Whoever survives, his country wins. That would be much simpler and more just than this arrangement, where the wrong people do the fighting."

This statement is a pure gold essence, like the whole book, showing how armies serve to fulfill agendas of politicians, presidents and influential generals.

Rating:
Summary: A Grim Reminder
Review: Remarque has done an amazing job with this novel. He has made the reader feel for the antagonists. This book is written about the German side of WWI. His main character, Paul Baumer, talks in the first person about his travails during the war. He starts out as a high school graduate joining with some friends after graduation. The story unfolds about his boot camp at the hands of a sadistic drill instructor who turns out to be the postman from their hometown who they used to tease.

The story progresses to the war and Pauls personal feelings of both comradery and fear. Fof me, one of the most intense moments in the book is when the reader learns of another soldier who had soiled his pants in fear turns out to be injured later in the battle with Paul helping to tends to his wounds. The book also does a wonderful job of showing how the veterans try and help the recruits survive.

This is a remarkable novel because of its realism. Remarque drew upon his years in the army during WWI to write this book. He writes a chilling account of the horrors of war by using the attacking side after the tide of war has turned against them. What he does that is so incredible is to show the humanity of the German soldiers. Many of them have no clue as to why they are actually fighting. His descriptions of the battles must have given him nightmares for years after the war because they are so real. I could smell the smoke and death as he wrote about them. This novel is highly reccommended.

Rating:
Summary: More than War
Review: It was more than war, it was the true point of view of a soldier, not something alot of people know. We look at war as bistanders, we don't know what's tryly going on. I highly recomend this book as it is a universal book among soldiers everywhere.

Rating:
Summary: intense and poetic
Review: This is a horrific novel, where there reader does not receive a superficial look at war, nor a mere look at the aftermath, nor a bloody account ... the reader goes all the way into the brain of the solider, the state of mind, and witnesses the change from a merciful and melancholy man to a machine. Remarque does a spectacular job of pulling the reader into understanding just how war in the trenches works, on the front and in the mind. I've never read anything like it, and this intense story is all too real to read lightly.

But, even more impressive is the remarkably poetic syntax throughout the novel. It makes the story even more dark and ghastly. Remarque uses repetition frequently, and his prose often makes the book more like poetry than anything else.

From this point forward I'll always have a very different view of war.

Rating:
Summary: review on all quiet on the western front
Review: All quiet on the Western Front was a very good book. Anybody looking to go into war should definlety read this, along with anybody just looking for a good book. This book gives a good backround of what war is like. It gives examples of bloody fights, and the death and destruction of war. The book starts out with 6 students enrolling into the army because a high school teacher encouraged them to. When the book is over all six student are dead. This is exactly what war is like. There are no winners only losers. It showed very good facts and examples about war. It went right into exact details about each character. How they act, how they feel, and how they think about certain things. The author of the book was in the exact same situation that these kids are in so you get a real life perspective of war.

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Summary: Fiddler
Review: All quiet on the western front was a very exciting book. It really gets the reader closer to world war one. It shows you the real hardships of war that a young soldier has to deal with, like fallen comrades pulling the trigger on another person. The book is very informational about the small details of war. It is a great book for high school seniors to read, especially if they are planning on joining the military. It shows them some of the hardships that they might face as a soldier. This book will help to prepare any soldier that is about to face combat. It will show them some of the harsh realities that they might face on the battle field. I recommend this book to any high school senior that is planning on joining the military.

Rating:
Summary: All quiet on the western front
Review: This isn't really my kind of book, my favorites being fantasy, but it is very well written, and a good story. I was never into war books, but this one really taught me just how serious it all really was in World War 1. This is one the parts that I will remember:

...The font is a cage in which we must await fearfully whatever may happen. We lie under the network of arching shells and live in a suspense of uncertainty. Over us, Chance hovers. If a shot comes, we can duck, that is all; we neither know nor can determine where it will fall.

It is this Chance that makes us indifferent. A few months ago I was sitting in a dug-out playing skat; after a while I stood up and went to visit some friends in another dug-out. On my return nothing more was to be seen of the first one, it had been blown to pieces by a direct hit. I went back to the second and arrived just in time to lend a hand digging it out. In the interval it had been buried.
It is just as much a matter of chance that I am still alive as that I might have been hit. In a bomb-proof dug-out I may be smashed to atoms and in the open may survive ten hours bombardment unscathed. No soldier outlives a thousand chances. But every soldier believes in Chance and trusts his luck.
-Excerpt from All quiet on the Western Front

Rating:
Summary: War
Review: This book is about a guy named Paul and his friends Kropp, Tjaden, and Katczinsky which they called Kat for short. They all joined the German army in WWI where they found out that war isn?t so great. They have many different adventures as the book goes on. They chase gooses around a shed and kill them to eat them because they didn?t have food. The rats in the trenches and the rats that ate their food were bad but I like the way they dealt with them. And I just think the overall view of what the war was like and what this people went through was horrific.
I think this is a good war novel because it has a lot of detail and it really gets you into the book right away. I think that this is a better book than The Red Badge of Courage, by: Stephen Crane because you get into it right away and it holds your attention. That?s why I feel that this is a good book. I like the way the author uses all the details except sometimes the details were kind of gross. Like the time when Hemrich, made the two soldiers who wet the bed sleep in the same bunk. That kind of got to me a little. I think my favorite line in this book is when it says the thunder of the guns swells to a single heavy roar and then breaks up again into separate explosions.(pg.59) I like this line because it really tells you how it sounded and it makes people think about what war is really like and makes you think that maybe war isn?t great.
I think that this book really taught me a lot about war and how terrible it was, and after seeing pictures of what some of these soldiers went through and hearing some of their stories it really makes you think about war. And it makes you think that we should never have war because of how many people die and what horrible things happen. Now after reading this book I would recommend it to people if they like war novels. But it is a hard book to put down because it really gets you into it.

Rating:
Summary: kept me gasping
Review: All Quiet On The Western Front kept me gasping with all the well described battle scenes. The book is well written and draws you into the lives of the men. At the end of the book he leaves you with the harsh image of war. I think All Quiet On The Western Front is great, but it is a little hard to read.