Erich Maria Remarque; trans. A.W. Wheen
Little can be said about All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque that hasn’t already been said. This is understandably considered one of the greatest war novels ever written. Told through the first person point of you of the twenty-year old German soldier, Paul Bäumer, the novel immerses us in the graphic sights, sounds, and stench of World War I as it is fought trench by muddy trench.
Bäumer is an everyman as his experience mirrors the experience of soldiers on all sides of the conflict. We witness the horrors of war through his eyes as he aches with hunger, exhaustion, and fear. We trudge alongside him through the mud and the rain, the sweltering heat and sweat. We hear the cacophonous sounds of exploding shells, guns, and bombs. We watch him struggle to put on his gas mask before he inhales the killer gas. We taste the fear and anxiety in his mouth as he sees severed limbs strewn on the battlefield and witnesses the death of comrades. We feel his alienation as he goes home on leave only to recognize that home and his former life will never be the same again. And we sympathize with his gradual realization of the futility and waste of human life and potential that is war. In the midst of the horror, we experience with him the touching moments of intimacy with comrades and prisoners of war—an intimacy based on a recognition that they are all mere pawns fighting to the death in a war they don’t believe in or understand.
The imagery is vivid, the description is stark, and the view is unflinchingly honest. By describing the experience of war through the eyes of a young recruit, Remarque shines a light on the horrors of war at all times and in all places. This novel is as relevant today as it was when first published in 1929.
Very powerful and highly recommended.