Before anything else, I want to say that this book is not light at all. It depicts gruesome and graphic scenes, and it is very dark. I will also talk about some scenes in the book including the ending, so a spoiler warning should be said too.
All Quiet on the Western Front follows Paul Bäumer, a German soldier who enlisted in World War One at 20 years old, and his group. The novel was published in 1929 and written by Erich Maria Remarque, who served in the war himself. It features strong themes of how the war has destroyed each one of the soldiers. The novel is not perfectly written, which I would not expect of a translated book from 90 years ago. However, it amazes me how it can be so descriptive. There are paragraphs where it only talks about the details of a forest going by while on a train.
The main characters are not heroes. They don't even think of themselves as heroes; they only fight for their lives. One of the strongest scenes in the whole book points this out. I want to give a content and spoiler warning before.
Paul is stuck in a shell hole with machine guns firing above his head when an enemy soldier falls in. Before even thinking, Paul strikes him with his knife. It is the first time he kills someone in hand to hand combat. He is now stuck in the shell-hole with this man. He attempts to ignore what he's done, but the man is not dead yet. Paul finally breaks and his actions dawn on him. He tries to save the man, but he is too late. When the man dies, Paul looks into his pocket-book and finds the man's name with photos of his family. For nights, he gets haunted by the thought of the man's family and life.
Paul Bäumer cannot be a civilian ever again. Things will never be the same. He realizes this when he goes to his family for a few days. He no longer fits into his home town. The town itself had not changed, but he had. The final straw for him is the death of his friends. Throughout the book, the characters you come close to leave one by one. The only one left is Kat, who was a mentor for Paul when he first joined. Kat dies from a splinter in the head while Paul unknowingly carries him to the doctors. Paul becomes careless about his life and dies in October 1918 on a quiet day. The only sentence in the army report being "All Quiet on the Western Front."
The author did not mean for the book to be a political statement, but nonetheless, it was burned and banned in Nazi Germany. All Quiet on the Western Front is not for everyone. It will not be a happy reading, and people may want to put the book down after getting a little bit in. It is about the extreme conditions and harsh reality of a generation put through war. I cannot recommend this book to everyone, because I know not everyone will like it. For the ones who think they are ready for it, All Quiet on the Western Front is an incredible story that will stick with you for years, and it will not hold back at all.
-Coleman Clougherty
Nice post! I think it's really cool how you decided to read a translated book. I also liked how you were honest and upfront about the contents of the book, and after reading your description I'd have to agree that it's not for everyone. Although this book may not be the one for me your blog was really written so good job!
ReplyDeleteNot even halfway through reading this post, I knew this would be a cool book. The books with heavier topics seem to engage me more so this is one book I might have to actually check out.
ReplyDeleteI really like these kinds of books. I don't enjoy it but I like how these books are brutally honest about violence during war. It is a sticky situation and it's not like the movies where you go out with a machine gun and blast away everybody like it's Call of Duty. Of course, I don't have the right to talk about what war is like but I've read a considerable amount about it and I plan on reading this as well.
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