All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

This book came originally from school as I read it in class in my English lessons. It was a very good book as it explained what life was like in WWI. It told us how battles were won and lost, a lot about life in trenches and the kind of food a treatment they get from high ranking officers. I really enjoyed this book as it linked in with what I have been doing lately in my History lessons. The story was based on a German soldier called Paul Baumer who was on the Western front, fighting against British and French troops. It tells us about how he recruited along with his school mates at the age of seventeen and went straight to a training camp on the outskirts of his town. It then says how he goes up to the front line and sees terrible things: People being ripped to shredds by machine guns and mortars, gas bombs and people suffocating in them and horses being wounded in battle. Unfortunately he is wounded nearer the end and has to go to a hospital that is run by nuns. As soon as he gets out and back to the front line he finds out that most of his friends are dead. Suddenly his last friend dies and he is left alone to fight with other German soldiers he does not know. I really enjoyed this book as I thought that it spread light on what soldiers in the First World War had to put up with. I am giving it 9/10.

MB

I had never considered reading this book until Matthew told me about it. I was surprised at how easy it was to read, a reflection of the superb translation that was done. I was impressed by the graphic detail which did not hold back on the horror of the Great War and the impact that it had on a generation. At the time we were in Normandy and we visited a number of sites which had been attacked during the Second World War and it brought home to me the massive impact that war has not only physically but also psychologically on the troops and the local population where the battles took place. The style reminded me of the books by Sven Hassle which I had read as a teenager. This book is moving and though provoking and at this time of conflict (Afghanistan and Iraq) it is just as relevant today as it was then. No wonder the Third Reich banned it and revoked his citizenship. I give it a 10 out of 10.

JB

Overall 9.5/10