All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque
I would hail this book as one of the most evocative accounts of the First World War ever written. I was almost speechless when I finished it. There were passages which I found myself reading a second and third time because of their beauty. The story itself is similar to so many others – a young man grows into an old man as he experiences the war. His comrades become his only family and by the end, all hope for a future is lost along with the tens of thousands of lives. The difference with All Quiet on the Western Front is that the young man is from the ‘other side’. He is a ‘Hun’, a German, and yet his experience and suffering is identical. Upon reading this book so close behind A Long Long Way, the futility of the whole event becomes brilliantly clear.
It is little wonder this book was banned by the Nazis in the 1930’s. It does not glorify the war. It does not make the Germans out to be a master race or an invincible war machine. Rather, it shows them up as terrified boys who want nothing more but for the whole thing to end, but who cannot see an end and ultimately do little more than wish for their own. The reflections of the narrator are often bitter. The emphasis is on their living for the moment, enjoying what little they can scrounge, because they know that their mortality is finite and it is usually a matter of luck that they wake to see the sun rise.
One of the most incredible scenes was during the first battle early on in the book where the troops are subjected to the anguished sound of injured horses screaming. The scene consolidated the fact that no matter which side you were on, ultimately everyone suffered.
“You want to get up and run away, anywhere just so as not to hear that screaming any more. And it isn’t men, just horses.”
Every participant is like one of those horses – “…what have they done to deserve that…it is the most despicable thing of all to drag animals into a war” – they are all helpless, all dragged in, all frightened to die.
Once again, this book follows a trajectory downwards. It starts with some hope. There is levity among the group at the beginning. But as the war drags on…
“Our hands are earth, our body mud, and our eyes puddles of rain. We no longer know if we are alive or not.”
They are no longer boys with hopes, dreams, futures or lives. They become the earth which is where they all ultimately fall.
This is an incredible book which should be mandatory reading for anyone who has ever seen war as a positive thing.
Rating: 10/10
ISSN: 1753-3120
Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd.
Date: 1994
Date Finished: 13 March 2008
Pages: 197
Challenges: 3 from category7: Books with World War I as the theme from the 888 Challenge; 1920’s in the 8 Decade challenge.
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I was pretty floored by this book, too. I found an illustrated edition once that has period photographs; that was excellent. If you can find it, well worth turning those pages!
@jeane – I would like to find that. It makes it all the more real when there are actual pictures from the time. I do keep thinking about the book – it is one of those that I will go back and read several times I think.
I read this book as an impressionable youth; I loved it then, but I’m curious to read it now that I’ve matured (somewhat haha) to see if it will provoke the same emotion. Have you read The Black Obelisk? It was also very good, and I preferred it over All Quiet On The Western Front.
@chayenne – no, I haven’t read The Black Obelisk yet. If you preferred it to All Quiet, it must be good. I will add it to my Amazon wishlist.
“ultimately everyone suffered”- the book summed up the futility and needlessness of war.
It’s a difficult read because of how vivid it is, how real.
This was a fine post about a very important book.
I just finidhed this book and am tryingto grasp the real meaning of it. I am trying to get the thme down and what in the book illustrates the theme. ??? If anyone can explain???