Book Review: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
This is another where I can’t rate it.
It was objectively well done. The writing style, the conveyance of what the author wanted to convey, the evocative nature of the writing – whether despair or sense of futility or angst – created that fog in the readers’ mind.
In that way, the author succeeded at what he was trying to do.
Unfortunately, I cannot live in that despairing, dark, lack of hope. Also what he wanted to convey: that man in these situations devolves to beast.
Man devolving to beast in the trenches was hard to read. Also, his incapacity to see his way back to manhood so that death was almost a relief. Despair, futility, no God. Dark dark dark. In many ways I can’t believe we give this to high schoolers.
The book emphasizes the change to modern warfare. The inescapability, chance as all. While “war is hell” and war and society had changed, this book fosters the cynicism of the reader with “reality.”
I did not like it. It was important to read. Thus: no stars.