All Quiet on the Western Front

This book is best understood in its quotes.

“We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial—I believe we are lost.” (p123)

“But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response. It was that abstraction I stabbed. But now, for the first time, I see that you are a man like me.” (p223)

This book reminded me of Steinbeck's The Moon Is Down. It gave an interesting and what I perceive to be a realistic account of the German experience of WWI. I'm glad to have finally read this classic book!

Paul and his classmates enlist in World War I. As they move through the days, the trials and the heartaches that they endure are something that will define them for the remainder of their lives, however long or short they might be.
As the war progresses, the shortfalls that the army is suffering become more apparent. The lack of men, ammo and other necessities. Paul notates as they move through the days that they have been trained to die, and they are good at doing that.


This coming of age story of these young men is something new. This story tells of the camaraderie that each of them felt, the bonds of friendship, and how hard they fought to stay together, no matter what. This story is something that all should read!

“I soon found out this much: terror can be endured so long as a man simply ducks, but it kills if a man thinks about it.”

There's approximately eleventy bajillion other reviews that will probably summarize this book better than I ever could, so I won't bother with a summary.

What I will say is, in a sea of WWI/WWII fiction, this one rightfully stands head and shoulders above the rest. It captures the feeling of boys, fresh out of school, enlisting to do their country proud, being sent to the front lines, and learning what World War I was all about. Reading about their forced transition from boy to man in a very short time was heartbreaking, and there's scene after scene that sticks in my head even after being done with the book.

This book isn't for everyone. It's graphic, pulls no punches, and is heavy on detail. It's also more stream of consciousness and one man's observations than plot-driven, so if that isn't your cup of tea, you might not get a lot out of this book.

It broke my heart and made me cry. That's a hallmark of a good book to me.

I found the story very moving and real in a way I wasn't quite ready for. I wasn't sure if it was historical fiction or written by someone who had been there and the more I read, the more certain I was that Remarque had experienced this himself (he had). The first half seemed to bounch back and forth between the front line and the break the soldiers got between their turns at the front. The stark differences between the two were very well done and showed how brutal conditions were for those fighting. I thought Remarque wrote beautifully about the feelings Paul and his comrades had while fighting and I found it all very moving.

I am hontesly finding this hard to word myself. Maybe motsly as this book is not super engraving so I bearly rember wht I even read anymore. It was a god and pleasent quick read. But also it was super easy to forget for me.

My brother gave me this book in high school and it has travelled with me for some time. I've read it over the month of September and found it to be quite exceptional.

Sadly this lined up with the Netflix series so I've got some shit for that. I didn't even know they were making it into a show!

A much different view of war than I've read before. This lining up with my political views and disdain of war and all who would order it. The deaths at the end were all so rapid and written so casually it captures the numbness that the war brought to all the characters.

Now as much as then, a fiercely anti war book. I bet modern war mongers would find a way to read it and pretend it does not apply to them, that modern wars are better, simpler, cleaner, but every human with a shred of empathy can tell that it's a lie. Today's armies still send their young to a futile, cruel, meaningless death, no matter how much we tell ourselves otherwise. Herein lies both the brilliance and the deep sadness of Remarque's book, that it has not aged in a hundred years, and probably never will.

Questa purtroppo è una di quelle letture che ti vengono quasi sempre imposte durante le vacanze estive scolastiche. Per me per mia grande fortuna così non fu. Perchè ebbi modo di leggerla già “maturo”, quando la tua mente è formata e piena, quando non hai tanti amici che ti aspettano giù con il motorino acceso in una giornata estiva. Questo è un libro crudo, molto crudo e triste. Ma è un libro che ti rimane dentro, che alla fine ti fa piangere, descrive colorando con tinte fosche e brutali ciò che era la vita dei soldati nelle trincee della grande guerra, i loro pensieri, le loro speranze, le piccole gioie e i grandi dolori. Imperdibile fonte di accrescimento personale.

Este libro es una joya, su contenido es otro nivel, seguramente quedará en mi recuerdo por buen tiempo, si no es que para toda mi vida. 

Encontré (en el libro) preguntas, reflexiones y pensamientos similares (que me hago) al “ver” sucesos similares, cosas que no se entienden cómo pueden suceder, pero aun así se han repetido tantas veces en la historia...