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).
Showing posts with label B.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label B.. Show all posts
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Monday, April 30, 2007
Book #16: The Yiddish Policemen's Union
TItle of Book: The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Author: Michael Chabon
Pages: I think 400 or so?
Grade: B
Buyability: 4/10
Status: Owned (freebie)
Well I've been ranting and raving over how awesome Mr. Chabon is in here for ages. And yet I gave him a B? How can this "be"? The truth of the matter is, getting through this book was hard, as it dealt quite lightly with death and family and I have been going through stuff with death and family lately - so reading the book made me be like...oh. Really?
Anyway the other problem was I am a massive fan of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (hereby known as K&C) his first book, a pulitzer prize winner, and therefore no book can ever measure up to. None. Especially not one by the same author. So yeah, I kept on comparing the two.
With that in mind, I *heart* Chabon's writing. It never fails to capture me - and I liked that he had shorter chapters this go-round. The endings of each chapter were brilliant, as they left you at a movie style cliffhanger that you just had to turn the page to read on about. I've tried to figure out what makes Chabon's writing so likable - he uses a lot of unique metaphors, he keeps the language simple, his characters have 'true' voices...but he's got that Rowling-esque something special, that author's voice that urges you to stay engaged and keep on keeping on.
The story in this book is probably what prevented the book from taking off. It follows a down-and-out policeman living in the district of Sitka, part of the Alaskan 'Israel' if you will - that was once a proposal by Roosevelt instead of giving the Jews Palestine post-WW2. Sitka and all of Alaska is on the brink of termination as a protected area, soon to be taken over by the resident natives once again. In the midst of all this, Detective Meyer Landsman is woken up one night to investigate a mysterious execution-style murder of one of the hotel's other occupants. The rest of the book is a fast-paced hunt by Landsman and his unwilling companions, including his new boss and former wife, BIna, as he tries to discover why this man was murdered...before he is murdered himself by the foes behind the whole thing.
The book combined so many elements - lots of Jewish mythology and culture - that I wasn't familiar with, but interested in. Yet unlike masters of the history-meets-action novel (cough Dan Brown), Chabon fails to clarify, or at least make it easy to follow and build up knowledge on, the history that is driving the seedy action throughout the story. The billions of characters don't make it any easier. What i did like was the fact, like a good movie, all of the little details came back to haunt or help Landsman in the latter half of the book. His dead sister, his fear of entering the tunnels, the string collection...every time I thought "okay why was that in there again?" within a chapter or two, as if Chabon had timed our conciousness to awaken at a particular time, all of a sudden that plot element would come back into play.
The Yiddish Policeman's Union is not flawed, so much as dense. It packs a lot in, much as K&C did, but it is rooted very heavily in Jewish culture, which I'm not familiar with. Still, I enjoyed reading it, and you will to - but if you're debating between this and K&C, the latter owns. Big time.
Author: Michael Chabon
Pages: I think 400 or so?
Grade: B
Buyability: 4/10
Status: Owned (freebie)
Well I've been ranting and raving over how awesome Mr. Chabon is in here for ages. And yet I gave him a B? How can this "be"? The truth of the matter is, getting through this book was hard, as it dealt quite lightly with death and family and I have been going through stuff with death and family lately - so reading the book made me be like...oh. Really?
Anyway the other problem was I am a massive fan of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (hereby known as K&C) his first book, a pulitzer prize winner, and therefore no book can ever measure up to. None. Especially not one by the same author. So yeah, I kept on comparing the two.
With that in mind, I *heart* Chabon's writing. It never fails to capture me - and I liked that he had shorter chapters this go-round. The endings of each chapter were brilliant, as they left you at a movie style cliffhanger that you just had to turn the page to read on about. I've tried to figure out what makes Chabon's writing so likable - he uses a lot of unique metaphors, he keeps the language simple, his characters have 'true' voices...but he's got that Rowling-esque something special, that author's voice that urges you to stay engaged and keep on keeping on.
The story in this book is probably what prevented the book from taking off. It follows a down-and-out policeman living in the district of Sitka, part of the Alaskan 'Israel' if you will - that was once a proposal by Roosevelt instead of giving the Jews Palestine post-WW2. Sitka and all of Alaska is on the brink of termination as a protected area, soon to be taken over by the resident natives once again. In the midst of all this, Detective Meyer Landsman is woken up one night to investigate a mysterious execution-style murder of one of the hotel's other occupants. The rest of the book is a fast-paced hunt by Landsman and his unwilling companions, including his new boss and former wife, BIna, as he tries to discover why this man was murdered...before he is murdered himself by the foes behind the whole thing.
The book combined so many elements - lots of Jewish mythology and culture - that I wasn't familiar with, but interested in. Yet unlike masters of the history-meets-action novel (cough Dan Brown), Chabon fails to clarify, or at least make it easy to follow and build up knowledge on, the history that is driving the seedy action throughout the story. The billions of characters don't make it any easier. What i did like was the fact, like a good movie, all of the little details came back to haunt or help Landsman in the latter half of the book. His dead sister, his fear of entering the tunnels, the string collection...every time I thought "okay why was that in there again?" within a chapter or two, as if Chabon had timed our conciousness to awaken at a particular time, all of a sudden that plot element would come back into play.
The Yiddish Policeman's Union is not flawed, so much as dense. It packs a lot in, much as K&C did, but it is rooted very heavily in Jewish culture, which I'm not familiar with. Still, I enjoyed reading it, and you will to - but if you're debating between this and K&C, the latter owns. Big time.
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