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Summary: All Quiet on the Western Front
Review: All Quiet On The Western Front tells the story of nineteen year old Paul Baumer. Paul is a German, and while in school he and his friends enlist into the army. After a hard fought battle against the Allied Forces, Paul is sent home on leave. He does not enjoy it much, though, because he feels strange. Paul returns to the battle and spends a short amount of time at a training camp. The camp is near to a Russian POW camp and Paul soon realizes that the "enemy" is the same as he is. Just a man, fighting a war. After returning to his regular company, he and his friends are given a simple assignment. He has to watch a supply depot. In the next outburst of war, Paul and his friend, Kropp, are wounded. They are able to get on a hospital train and get the treatment they need. The war begins to wind down and the German forces begin to dwindle. All throughout the camp it is rumored the the Germans will surrender. Paul is the only left out of his original friends. Paul dies in October 1918 alone. The report for the day reads "All Quiet on the Western Front. The book ends with the haunting image of Paul's corpse having a calm expression, like he was glad the war was finally over.
I would suggest this book to anyone. It is written with vivid imagery and many details.
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Summary: an anti-war masterpiece
Review: All Quiet on the Western Front is a gripping tale of men, life, death, and despair. It tells the story of a generation of youth lost to the rattling of machine guns and the din of artillery. Those who have not yet fully grasped life would never be able to do so after the war. As described by the author, Erich Maria Remarque, the purpose of this novel is to 'tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war'. It brings to life the experiences and horrors faced by an ordinary soldier on the western front.
It is 1917, and World War I has been raging for some years now. The narrator and focus of the action, German infantryman Paul Baumer, has just returned from the front. His friends and former schoolmates Tjaden, Muller, Kropp, Haie, and the elderly Katczinsky (Kat) accompany him. After a few days of rest and the arrival of some reinforcements, they are sent back to the front for an overnight stint of laying barbed wire. As the reader, you experience your first night of terrible shelling, followed by a gas attack that foreshadows the terrors yet to come. Just a week or so later, they are called back to the front in light of a coming offensive. Through the ensuing days and weeks, a frenzy of attacks and counterattacks take place, all masterfully described through Remarque's frighteningly real style of writing. The book continues in this fashion taking you through the last years of the war.
All Quiet on the Western Front is a moving story that one cannot help to be affected by. I give it my strongest recommendation. It is an anti-war novel, which should continue to be read by our youth so that yet another young generation shall not be so lost. The characters are diverse and the writing concise. Remarque has created a masterpiece of the battlefield that shall forever stand as one of the best.
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Summary: Anti-War Classic
Review: Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front paints a picture of war that is distubing but also compelling and thought provoking. As the present generations have not been involved in any sustained military conflicts, it is important to be reminded of war's devastation to remind one of what could happen to them and their fellow citizens. This book will remain a classic because it is an easy read that all ages can learn from.
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Summary: Absolutely brilliant novel: one for the ages
Review: Without a doubt, _All Quiet on the Western Front_ is one of the finest novels ever printed. Never did I expect to find such a tightly crafted, poignant, and beautiful novel. The novel compellingly illustrates the pointlessness and tragedy of war: war is a failure to be condemned, not a triumph to be celebrated. At the age of 33, having read thousands of books in my life, surely this is one of the finest. I only wish I had read it sooner. I hope that every student, in every nation, will read this book.
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Summary: Even Better Than Johnny
Review: On the cover of my All Quiet on the Western Front is printed "the greatest war novel of all time." In a time when it seems like every book bears on its cover either "New York Times Bestseller," "Best-Selling Author" or "Book of the Year Award Finalist," this one lives up to its billing. All Quiet is a masterpiece, a page turning one-nighter, the literary Saving Private Ryan. The story follows the war experiences of Paul Baumer, young German enlisted, and those of his friends, all of whom Remarque does a remarkable job acquainting the reader with on a personal, almost intimate level. The book becomes increasingly sobering as one by one Paul's friends get snuffed out, or, even worse, die slow and painful deaths. The reader will laugh as Paul and Co. do battle with the ever-present rat(s) of a novel of this sort; be quietly satisfied as they settle the score with the awful Himmeltoss; cheer for them as they find semblence of a normal life for a night with the French women; cry as a pair of boots, something as simple as quality combat boots, become a symbol of all that is lost in war; and cringe, despair of and weep throughout at the true costs of war. It seems to be as close as one can get to battle without actually being in the trenches. Remarque obviously lived it all, describing in detail the horrors of trench warfare, the inhumanity of throwing fresh, new recruits literally into the fire, the utter terror of the bombing raids, the awful wails of dying men, the maddening shrieks of dying animals. Through the course of the novel, one notices a gradual change in Paul the rookie and Paul the veteran. The turning point -- perhaps one small facet of what Remarque was alluding to in his paragraph-long introduction when he notes, "It (the book) will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war." -- happens as Paul encounters a French soldier, killing him with, as I remember it, a knife. For a time Paul is deeply shocked by the horror of what he has done, seeing this man not as the enemy, but as a fellow human being, a husband, and vowing to write to his wife one day. And then it fades, as Paul becomes one of the many "destroyed" ones. That Paul has become isolated, cut off from the rest of humanity, haunted by his wartime experiences, is no better demonstrated than when Paul says (upon returning home on a short leave): "I prefer to be alone, so that no one troubles me...Formerly I lived in just the same way myself, but now I feel no contact here.
They talk too much for me. They have worries, aims, desires, that I cannot comprehend. I often sit with one of them in the little beer garden and try to explain to him that this is really the only thing, just to sit quietly like this. They understand, of course, they agree, they may even feel it so too, but only wiht words, only with words, yes, that is it - they feel it, but always with only half of themselves.
When I see them here, in their rooms, in their offices, about their occupations, I feel an irresistable attraction in it, I would like to be here too and forget the war; but also it repels me, it is so narrow, how can that fill a man's life, he ought to smash it to bits; how can they do it, while out at the front the splinters are whining over the shell-holes, the wounded are carried back on waterproof sheets and comrades crouch in the trenches. They are different men here, men I cannot properly understand, whom I envy and despise." Some of the best and most emotionally stirring writing I've ever come across. Five stars.
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Summary: One of the greatest books ever!
Review: This is a classic that everybody, sometime in their life should read. All Quiet on the Western Front is powerful, gripping, sad and tragic. It makes you think twice about war and life in general. The characters of the novel you begin to adopt as friends and together you both go on a journey that ultimately witnesses your destruction, emotionally if not physically. All Quiet on the Western Front is definitely one of the 20th century's finest literary achievements.
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Summary: I understood it!
Review: Reading All Quiet may be a bit harder in 2002 than it was in 1929. For one thing, we've got dozens of gory bloody war movies, even more vivid books, magazine articles, History Channels documentaries, etc. etc. etc. But I tried to appreciate this work in the environment of its release - 1929. And I can see why it made such a splash. It was a pretty visionary and new way to depict war. I admit I only read it for a class, but it was far less painful than most required literature. I could actually feel for Paul Baumer and his friends; I shared his frustration, his fleeting moments of joy, his desperation, and his growing numbness in the trenches and doubt in his superiors. My only qualm with this book is that it doesn't seem to be leading anywhere, story-wise. It seems to be more of a literary picture than a story. And as such, it succeeds admirably.
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Summary: This review pales in comparison with the book......
Review: I have never been a big fan of war movies or war stories, but I decided I would give this a try. I found that I enjoyed it very much. Perhaps to say I enjoyed it isn't quite the proper way to express what I thought of the story. It's very different from the typical war story, whether in book or film form. There is no glamour, no romance - just day-to-day, sometimes brutal reality. Yet it isn't an entirely gruesome story. It is well written. The first-person aspect draws you straight into the narrator's shoes, and the present-tense form causes you to move right along with the action (or the long periods of sitting and eating while waiting for action). I do not mean to insinuate by that that nothing happens in this book. A lot happens. But the mundane has become all-important to the soldiers, and I didn't even think about it most of the time that this book is basically only about the very mundane. Trapping geese because there isn't anything good to eat, lying in a hospital watching people who are wheeled out and don't come back. Sitting for hours in a shell-hole with a man you have shot dead, looking at the pictures of his wife and daughter that he carries in his wallet, thinking for several pages about little else. Although it is all very sad I didn't find it depressing, even at the end. But then I seem to have a tendency toward the grim and depressing so maybe that's just me. I definitely consider this a classic and I hope to read more of Remarque's work in the future.
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Summary: Anti-war novel for all time
Review: Erich Maria Remarque's timeless novel against war, All Quiet On The Western Front, tells the war from the private's point of view rather than from the general's point of view. The former point of view is grimmer, filled with the everyday terror of war. And this war was unlike any other fought before, as there were no major advances or retreats, and the war was fought on a limited sector of ground, between two lines of trenches, one French and British, the other German, with both sides giving no quarter, throwing thousands of young lives at each other and away. The new technology and weaponry didn't improve the situation. In that context, there were two possible outcomes for the private: death at the front, or the worse, psychological death. What kind of war was it where the survivors were better off dead, killed instantly by being annihilated by a shell, asphyxiated by mustard and chlorine gas, or slower and more painful, by gangrene? The "Great War" have transformed Paul and his company into semi-living blobs of fear on the front, and in the case of Paul, alienated him from civilian life, such as his books, family, and the older people who his father takes him to meet. And the older generation, completely disconnected with what Paul has undergone at the front, shallowly tells him to "shove ahead a bit out there with your everlasting trench warfare--Smash through the johnnies and then there will be peace." One can imagine Paul wanting to grab the old fool by the collar and shaking him silly. They also become wild beasts defending themselves against Death, as Paul mentions in Chapter Six. When the French soldiers attack, the Germans do not think of them as men. They have had it with being attacked by faceless artillery and gas and can take their revenge by flinging grenades at them. Their fear, madness, and drive for life is multiplied in concert to the point that if their own father came in front of them, they wouldn't hesitate to lob a grenade at them. To summarize the common denominator of the people the soldiers hate, it is people who are not in their world. What do the recruits, non-commissioned and commissioned officers, the older generation at home, or the sisters know of their life, their world? During war, things take on multiple meanings that alienate the soldiers from humanity. Death is signified by an empty bed. All that remains of the poor fellow who died for his country is his effects, be they boots, clothes, or photographs, the things that had significance because they were owned by a soldier. These possessions, bereft of their owner, seem like another layer of skin that has been sloughed off following death. In the end, World War I proved to be the worst area a soldier could ever have been stationed for the following reasons: a lengthy stalemate on both sides, new technology, and the bitter animosity of the opposing sides that extended to the battlefield.
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Summary: Don't judge a book by it's cover
Review: On the back cover of the 1996 hardcover edition is a B&W photograph of Remarque taken as a young man. Here we see a handsome face with stern eyes, a slight (maybe uncomfortable?) smile, meticulously well-groomed hair, and a buttoned-up shirt with properly donned necktie. I had never read any of Remarque's works before and judging by this photo of him, I'll admit that I thought this book was going to be pretty stuffy and pretentious reading. I stand corrected. I found "All Quiet on the Western Front" to be a moving portrayal of the effect of war on the human condition and its effect on society. Remarque tells the story through the eyes of the German soldier Paul Baumer, using a very direct and straightforward writing style that was easy to understand. This same writing style that expressed hints of humor and mischief when Paul was with his comrades in the lighter moments of the story just as easily portrayed blackness, destruction, and insanity whenever an artillery bombardment or an infantry attack came. It is remarkable. A prevailing theme in this book is that war is hell and in the process of adapting to it, you lose some of your humanity. There's a psychological defense mechanism involved in not seeing your soldier buddies as anything more than bunkmates (instead of as people with families and aspirations) or the enemy as anything more than monsters trying to kill you. ... "All Quiet on The Western Front" brought attention to social issues that affected WWI-era Germany, such as the "lost generation". This generation of German youths had been raised up on German patriotism and love of the fatherland, only to find out bitterly that these concepts rang hollow on the battlefields of WWI under artillery barrages and gas attacks. Taken directly out of school to fight the war, they had nothing to return to once the war ended. As Remarque wrote in the book, "We have been cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war." Published in 1928, "All Quiet on The Western Front" was a portent of what was to happen later to Germany and to the rest of Europe in the 20th century. Bottom Line: We all know this is a famous book, but you just have to sit down and read it to find out why.
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