All Quiet on the Western Front in Between the Lines

Oct 02, 2007 Fenixbird SandS rated it really liked it

Shelves: requiredschoolreading

Rough translation from the German. Remarque's writing is very deep, and he gives rich characterizations. "All Quiet" made me get to know most of these soldiers rather intimately, for war if nothing else, reminds us of the very basic passion each of us feels for being granted another day or another moment alive. However, a lot the "flow" I believe was lost in this translation. [My essay is below] This book depicts the tragic waste of WWI aka The Great War...never knew anything about it really bef Rough translation from the German. Remarque's writing is very deep, and he gives rich characterizations. "All Quiet" made me get to know most of these soldiers rather intimately, for war if nothing else, reminds us of the very basic passion each of us feels for being granted another day or another moment alive. However, a lot the "flow" I believe was lost in this translation. [My essay is below] This book depicts the tragic waste of WWI aka The Great War...never knew anything about it really beforehand (except that it started over a dispute in Austria?? Who shot whom?)

[Note: I am renting the movie taken from this fiction novel. If YOU are also a war buff like myself, I recommend these films: "Joyeaux Noel (Merry Christmas)" (World War I) and "The Pianist" (World War II) Somehow their music themes belonged on the silver screen!

[From my essay on this book: "What was most moving of this literary work was the immediacy each solder faced. In particular when faced with the impending death of a fellow soldier, it became clear that each person鈥檚 needs were not their first priority but a clear second as they expressed empathy and compassion through extreme valor in trying to keep their wounded comrades alive when on the battlefield-- and as they face what might be their own demise.

A soldier鈥檚 perspective certainly moved this reader to retain her belief in pacifism. As "All Quiet" illustrates, there is no apparent glory in war, but rather as Remarque depicts this day-to-day acknowledgment of necessity, sheer robotic conformity and determination to meet that struggle, one has to feel admiration for these young soldiers鈥� incredible heart in battle. These soldiers, most of them barely more than boys, have their complete outlook changed by the war. Louis Kronenberger aptly expressed:

鈥淚t almost certainly had no such fascination for these soldiers; yet All Quiet remains, essentially, a document of men who--however else their lives were disrupted--could endure war simply as war. . .It is about youngsters who were half-puzzled over what it all meant: who were not driven to mental torture because they could not endure what they knew or check their imaginations at what they saw. They sit around, half shrewd, half n盲ive, and speculate now and again....But there is no sense of terrible knowledge, of moral responsibility.鈥� Source: Louis Kronenberger, "War's Horror as German Private Saw It," in The New York Times Book Review, (漏 1929 by The New York Times Company; reprinted by permission), June 2, 1929, p. 5.

This writer shares Mr. Kronenberger鈥檚 view of the soldiers lacking remorse or a sense of moral responsibility. The young age of the soldiers naturally makes them more programmable to the mechanics of battle and partially as a result of this does change the youths鈥� outlook on their future. Paul Baumer鈥檚 thoughts while he is on leave show how his emotions are juxtaposed between the reality of war and the now seemingly strange hopefulness and familiarity of home and family.

鈥淚 bite into my pillow. I grasp the iron rods of my bed
with my fists. I ought never to have come here. Out
there I was indifferent and often hopeless鈥擨 will never
be able to be so again. I was a soldier, and now I am
nothing but an agony for myself, for my mother, for
everything that is so comfortless and without end.

I ought never to have come on leave.鈥� Excerpt, pp. 184-5)
. . . "] ...more

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Jan 07, 2010 Kellie rated it it was ok

Shelves: fiction-literature, classic, 2016-read

I think I found this book at our local goodwill. I have these ideas I'm going to read a bunch of classics. And like them.
So, after reading a few mysteries, I decided to try this. It wasn't terrible.
The author gave the reader at taste of every aspect of war. We experience the front line in the trenches, the hospital environment and all the wounded, the sound of the horses wounded during battle, soldiers on leave, soldiers returning to battle after recovering from injury. The author touches it all ...more

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Nov 26, 2008 Atishay rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is a must-buy and must-read again and again. All Quiet on the Western Front is a vision of war in the trenches through the eyes of Paul Baumer, a twenty year old goaded to join its glory when he is still at school. Though the story is simple enough, this book couldn't let me sleep for the night when I finished it. A true masterpiece and definitely one of those books which I would want to treasure. ...more

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Jul 06, 2014 Marlaina McCauslin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, historical-fiction

This book has completely revolutionize my perspective on war. This novel flawlessly captures the confusion, bitterness, futility, and hopeless loss of human life on the battlefield. At the same time Remarque eliminates the false perception that war is glorious and honorable. The way in which the author accomplishes this is, in my opinion, without a single flaw. Written through the narrative of a young German soldier, Paul Baumer, this book succeeds in revealing an entirely new perspective to the ...more

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