All Quiet on the Western Front
Ratings451
Average rating4.1
How did I avoid reading this in high school fifty years ago? But I'm glad I finally did. Its message of the absurdity of war is one we all need to hear.
This is an amazing and sad classic. The way Remarque describes things makes you be able to easily visualize what is going on in the story. A great page turning classic.
Paul and his classmates enlist in World War I. As they move through the days, the trials and the heartaches that they endure are something that will define them for the remainder of their lives, however long or short they might be.
As the war progresses, the shortfalls that the army is suffering become more apparent. The lack of men, ammo and other necessities. Paul notates as they move through the days that they have been trained to die, and they are good at doing that.
This coming of age story of these young men is something new. This story tells of the camaraderie that each of them felt, the bonds of friendship, and how hard they fought to stay together, no matter what. This story is something that all should read!
I'm wavering between 3 and 4 stars again; I'll just go with 4. I can't say I really enjoyed this. It was so bleak and depressing, only moments when that wasn't so. It was prettily written though. I am glad I read it, but won't again at least for a long while.
Probably the best book I read this year, and perhaps in years. Amazingly written and after reading this you can nothing else than ask yourself why we still have wars.
This book is best understood in its quotes.
“We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial—I believe we are lost.” (p123)
“But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response. It was that abstraction I stabbed. But now, for the first time, I see that you are a man like me.” (p223)
This book reminded me of Steinbeck's The Moon Is Down. It gave an interesting and what I perceive to be a realistic account of the German experience of WWI. I'm glad to have finally read this classic book!
Was forced to read this in high school. Definitely interesting read but definitely hated it all into one.
Questa purtroppo è una di quelle letture che ti vengono quasi sempre imposte durante le vacanze estive scolastiche. Per me per mia grande fortuna così non fu. Perchè ebbi modo di leggerla già “maturo”, quando la tua mente è formata e piena, quando non hai tanti amici che ti aspettano giù con il motorino acceso in una giornata estiva. Questo è un libro crudo, molto crudo e triste. Ma è un libro che ti rimane dentro, che alla fine ti fa piangere, descrive colorando con tinte fosche e brutali ciò che era la vita dei soldati nelle trincee della grande guerra, i loro pensieri, le loro speranze, le piccole gioie e i grandi dolori. Imperdibile fonte di accrescimento personale.