"All Quiet on the Western Front" by Remarque

[myshkin]

Not yet half-way through this book but a very great book. One that I picked up out of a momentary curiosity having never been atrtacted to it before. The scenes of the Front(we're in WW1 here in case anyone's wondering) are incredible hallucinatory slices of hell on earth. Deeply humane book also. Couldn't recommend it more.

 

"We set out as soldiers, and we might be grumbling or we might be cheerful - we reach the zone where the front line begins, and we have turned into human animals."

 

Or how about this solution to conflicts

"Kropp is more philosophical. He reckons that all declarations of war ought to be made into a kind of festival, with entrance tickets and music, like they have in bullfights. Then the ministers and generals of the two countries would have to come into the ring, wearing boxing shorts, and armed with rubber truncheons, and have a go at each other. Whoever is left on his feet is declared the winner. That would be simpler and fairer than things out here, where the wrong people are fighting each other."

 

But what would these ignorant soldiers know? Just in case that makes the book sound like a polemic, it certainly isn't. It's a deeply powerful work of art with great integrity.

[awfulcase]

Hmmm...never read the book, but I remember seeing the movie version in school. The one with 'John Boy Walton' in it.

[myshkin]

 

Originally posted by awfulcase Hmmm...never read the book, but I remember seeing the movie version in school. The one with 'John Boy Walton' in it.

 

 

I think I saw it in school also but I'm not sure whether it was the Johnboy version or the more famous old film. I think it was the old one but I've no real recollection other than being pretty impressed. Anyway feeling ill so spent much of day reading the book and it's pretty remarkable. Feels utterly modern. And banned by the Nazis. So trod on the right toes.