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 A vivid and crushing take on war Aug 24, 2009
The cover of `All Quiet on the Western Front' proclaims it to be the `Greatest War Novel of All Time'. And I think it has a good claim to the title. Though I have read many a great war novel, the first person narrative and simple, descriptive prose gives this novel a powerful immediacy I have yet to experience in any other. Like all great art, we feel we are there, terrified when stuck in a trench as enemy bombs go off all around us, a little bored when off the front, letting the minutes and hours and days crawl by. Some may blanch at the graphic scenes, but it only adds to the effect, drawing us further in through its visceral pull, much as they do in, say, `Schindler's List'. It is not gratuitous. It is the most effective way to help one far removed from the actual events to feel them.
The narrator is a German soldier named Paul Baumer. He relates to us his experiences and those of a small band of his friends in the field of battle during World War I. These are young men, fresh out of school, but the war alters them irrevocably. They spend a lot of time talking - one feels this is almost as much a sort of therapy for them as it is a way to kill time- and in this way we come to see how the characters are different, yet the same. They discuss what they will do when the war is over, and though they each have different ideas about what they want to do, they all seem to understand that they will have nothing to go back to, that they will be going back to a blank slate. This is a heartbreaking dialogue, all the more for knowing that the odds are most of them won't get home alive anyway. In another, a visit from the Kaiser instigates a discussion over the senselessness of the war, which they seem to fully understand even as they fight. The modern American reader, used to having moral rationales for going to war, will probably want to yell at them, to scream at them to run away as far as they can. But this book is also a lesson of the time when duty was not always something to be thought over. They know they are there because the Kaiser has said so, because, "...every full-grown emperor requires at least one war." The reader, like the soldiers, feels helpless.
There are so many powerful scenes. Soldiers walking to the front and seeing brand new coffins waiting for them. The emotional high the narrator receives by merely sharing a goose with a friend. His surreal visit home to his family where they have no clue what he has endured. Getting stuck in a trench behind enemy lines, calculating his chances of survival. I cannot do any of them justice by laying them out here. The book must be read, and the events must unfold as Remarque wrote them, for it to be felt to its fullest effect.
 A vivid account; an enjoyable read Jul 25, 2009
(NB The version of this book I read was a translation from German to English by A.W. Wheen, so I can't vouch for any other translations.)
The prose is excellent. The story enjoyable. The style straightforward (and quite similar to George Orwell's style of writing). A book you can get through in a day or so of easy reading.
Well worth reading.
"Trenches, Hospitals, The Common Grave - There are No Other Possibilities" (page 169) Jul 15, 2009
Roughly eighty years after its publication, All Quiet on the Western Front remains a towering anti-war novel. Readers who are interested in what soldiers experience or in the ethical implications of war should read it.
AQWF concerns Paul Baumer, a youthful volunteer in the German Army during World War I. Remarque focuses his narrative on Paul's perceptions of the War and of his close friends in the German army. Remarque makes it clear that, whether they survive the War or not, Paul and friends will never possess the potential that they had before the War. "The war has ruined us for everything" (page xiv).
Remarque's writing is exceptionally strong, even in translation. The scene in which Paul attempts to escape shelling by clawing his way into a freshly-covered grave is devastating. It is symbolic that Paul and his comrades escape the War by hiding in the graves; Remarque implies that their only release from the horrors of the war will come through death. The graphic scene in which Paul spends time in a hospital is also revealing. Paul remarks "A hospital alone shows what war is" (page 160).
The power of AQWF makes it easy to see why the Nazis banned the book and stripped Remarque of his German citizenship; Germans who read AQWF certainly would have questioned the militant path Hitler had chosen for their nation.
I strongly recommend AQWF. I wish that all of the world's leaders would read it and reflect on Remarque's message. We might have fewer wars.
"The Greatest War Novel of All Time" - Hard to disagree Jun 30, 2009
This book was excellent. The cover of the copy I have says it is "the greater war novel of all time." While it is hard to say anything is the best ever, this book makes a close run. I have read many great war novels, and this one has moved to the top of my list.
The main theme of the novel is war sucks, and Remarque gives you plenty of reasons why. Also, while telling the story the author is able to show the struggles with poor command, insufficient hospital care and a soldier's struggle to return to a normal life. All of which are ideas which have been repeated through most wars and war novels.
You are there Jun 06, 2009
Erich Maria Remarque did a great job with his story. Being first person in view gave you the feeling that you were there. To add to this he is a very good writer.
Not being in the Great War, I can only imagine the technology of the time and trust in old war movies. In addition, this is a foreign culture in a foreign time. People there had a tendency to trust and respect their elders unquestionably.
Being of the Vietnam era, I could however relate to the parts about the different personalities and some of the war situations and attitudes. I could appreciate the river crossing at night and the defending of the deserted town. I even liked the cat that they befriended in the story. We had a dog that was named Followme, which was one of the few that did not end up in a pot. I even could feel the anxiety of not fighting and just waiting for action. The only major difference is the question of do you want the people to be behind you to push you on or cheer you on, or doing the same job with people that are indifferent or not supportive?
Anyway even with the graphic description of the actual battle is more of a description of war, not a reason to sue for peace at any cost. The story is more of a, "don't let someone pull the wool over your eyes," with the talk of the glory of war. A movie with that theme is "The Americanization of Emily" (1964)". Also, don't let Authority blindly lead you into the army with the condos as in, "Private Benjamin" (1980).
This is not the end but the key statement that pretty much sums it up, "He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the western Front."
All Quiet on the Western Front (Universal Cinema Classics)
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