From the Bookshelf of The History Book Club…

[close] An Historical Fiction Series selection voted for by the group members.
Review of Book: "We are at rest five miles behind the front”. This is how one of the world’s great literary treasures, All Quiet on the Western Front, begins. It is a story about a common soldier’s experience in WWI, written in a quiet style, yet conveying the horrific experiences of war in such a way that it has been viewed by some as the ultimate anti-war novel.

All Quiet on the Western Front is about the violence of war, comradeship, disillusionment and the casualty that confronts even those who return. The graphic and nightmare-like scenes in the trenches are horrific. So too is the intense sense of loneliness for the protagonist on leave only to return to the front. The hospital scenes will cause most readers to gasp. In its quiet, laconic, yet perfect style, this is a book that creates an everlasting impression.

Erich Maria Remarque (1898-1970) was drafted into German army at the age of 18 and served in World War I, where he received wounds five times in battle. The searing images of trench warfare left indelible scars on Remarque, who then attempted to exorcize his demons through the writing of literature. In the process, he became one of the greatest writers in Europe. All Quiet on the Western Front is Remarque’s most memorable book, but he wrote nine other books as well, dealing, more or less directly, with the miseries of war. In the 1930s Remarque’s books were banned by the Nazis.

All Quiet on the Western Front is the story of one man caught up in a war that he doesn’t even seem to fully comprehend. The story is that of Paul Baumer, a young German soldier serving in the trenches in France. Baumer volunteered for the war when his instructor in school, Kantorek, urged the class to join up for the glory of Germany. After training, Baumer and his friends go to the front as infantrymen. Filled with glorious ideas about war by authority figures back home, Baumer quickly discovers that the blood-drenched trenches of the Western Front are full of misery and violent death. As Paul’s friends slip away one by one through death, desertion, and injury, Paul begins to wonder about his own life and whether he will survive not only the war but also a world without war.

Remarque’s style is remarkable: He keeps his prose simple, direct, and easy to read without allowing it to become commonplace. Great horrors are presented casually – and in this setting that makes sense – they are the stuff of everyday life. However, the occasional moment of beauty are also allowed to stand out in relief against the hell of battle. And as the novel progresses and the characters change, harden, and sometimes warp and break under the stress of battle, we find ourselves repeatedly confronted with both the nobility and tragedy of the ordinary man at war.

All Quiet on the Western Front is a monumental literary work. One of the best, if not the best, books ever written about war.

Source: Peter on The World of Books

“The world has a great writer in Erich Maria Remarque. He is a craftsman of unquestionably first rank, a man who can bend language to his will. Whether he writes of men or of inanimate nature, his touch is sensitive, firm, and sure.”
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW