Book #18: All Quiet on the Western Front

Book Title: All Quiet on the Western Front
Author: Erich Maria Remarque
Pages: 295
Final Grade: B
Buyability: 2/10 (it's in the library, trust me!)
Status: Bought, and I still own it I think

Review:

I read this book for my pop lit class - it is truly the first 'war' novel as we know it today. And is it ever. This book is LITERALLY dead-on been copied by a book I read in my can lit class in first year (it was a third year class) entitled No Man's Land. Yet NML is the Canadian perspective of a battle in WW1, while AQOTWF (hereby AQ) is written, quite interestingly, from the perspective of a German solider during WW1. What I liked about the book is the ultimate message that Remarque was fighting to get out there - that fighting one another is insanity, that men of the same generation are driven to this place by men far older, less wiser, shrouded in lies to get their way.

I guess when I read it I didn't absorb as much as I could have - given I've already read NML, and I was speed reading this so I could have it done for Monday. There were some main images of interest to me, mostly Remarque's interest in boyhood and manhood and how there would likely be no place for these 'men' once they returned to their 'boy' lives. I also enjoyed the fact the book was written from a German perspective and found it astonishing how similar it was to NML - but then it supported my beliefs that war is quite stupid. It really painted a picture of the rawness of death and seperation and what it meant to the protagonist, Paul.

Finally, the best part of this book was the end. In one short paragraph Remarque manages to leave the most unsettling finish to a book I have encountered in some time - although I believe the same ending occured in NML, once again. But yes, after the amount of time you spend with Paul, in his head, in his actions, the more devastatingly interesting the ending is. A good read, although not my type of book, and not well received given I felt like I'd read it before (which is not Remarque's fault I don't think).