- The Blurb...
- My Review...
Most of the reviews I’ve read for this book state that it should be essential reading material in schools, and after reading it for myself I am inclined to agree. Although All Quiet on the Western Front is not an autobiography, Remarque has certainly drawn on his own first-hand experiences as a German soldier in The Great War to write it. The narrative of this novel, while compelling and harrowing, is not it’s main focus. This is less of a work of historical fiction and more of an exhibition of the very real atrocities of war. Although we follow the exploits of a specific soldier named Paul Baumer throughout the novel, the real main character of All Quiet on the Western Front is the war itself.
While this book is an insightful read for most ages, I heartily recommend this book to younger people more than older people. I am twenty-three years old, and I am very glad to have read this book when I did. Honestly, I might have preferred to have read it a couple years earlier too. The lead characters in this book are a squad of young men (late teens to early twenties) and this made All Quiet on the Western Front really resonate with me.
As I read about what those soldiers did to pass the time between fighting for their lives in the trenches, I realised that me and my friends would act no different from them if we found ourselves there too. Things like betting bottles of beer on dog fights, having profound discussions about war and it’s purpose, and just playing cards to pass the time. While there is a few uplifting moments of comradery in this novel, there are plenty of excruciating and heart-wrenching moments to combat it, made all the more terrifying knowing the author was actually at it’s forefront.
The tone in which Remarque describes the horror of war is very gritty and real. As a reader you are not spared any levity, you are told what happens and exactly how it happens in a very forthright manor. Things like the virulent effects of mustard gas, the agonising exhaustion from spending many days and nights in trenches and shell holes, and watching the life fade slowly from a dying soldier are all explained in painstaking detail. This novel is littered with many thoughtful and iconic quotes regarding war and it’s effects that really stick with the reader.
All Quiet on the Western Front has garnered an extensive reputation as being one of the greatest books on World War One ever and it’s clear to see why. It has made it’s way onto film too, first in 1930, and again in 1979. After doing some research I’ve discovered that another film adaptation of this book is coming to Netflix later this year in 2022 which I look forward to watching.
- Selected Quotes...
“Young? None of us is more than twenty. But young? Young men? That was a long time ago. We are old now.”
“Because one thing has become clear to me: you can cope with all the horror as long as you simply duck thinking about it – but it will kill you if you try to come to terms with it.”
“Everything must have been fraudulent and pointless if thousands of years of civilization weren’t even able to prevent this river of blood, couldn’t stop these torture chambers existing in their hundreds of thousands. Only a military hospital can really show you what war is.”
- If You Like This, You May Like...
Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger (Autobiographical)
The Guns of August by Barbera Tuchman (Non Fiction)
Regeneration by Pat Barker (Historical Fiction)
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks (Historical Fiction)
Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves (Autobiographical)
- About the Author...
Remarque was drafted into the German army at the age of 18 and was wounded several times. After the war he worked as a racing-car driver and as a sportswriter while working on All Quiet on the Western Front. The novel’s events are those in the daily routine of soldiers who seem to have no past or future apart from their life in the trenches. Its title, the language of routine communiqués, is typical of its cool, terse style, which records the daily horrors of war in laconic understatement. Its casual amorality was in shocking contrast to patriotic rhetoric. The book was an immediate international success, as was the American film made from it in 1930. It was followed by a sequel, Der Weg zurück (1931; The Road Back), dealing with the collapse of Germany in 1918. Remarque wrote several other novels, most of them dealing with victims of the political upheavals of Europe during World Wars I and II. Some had popular success and were filmed (e.g., Arc de Triomphe, 1946), but none achieved the critical prestige of his first book. (From Britannica.com)
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