All Quiet on the Western Front

“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.