Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1982
ISBN-13:9780449213940ISBN:0449213943
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Ex-library, typical markings. Pages tight and tanned, text clean. Nicks to several pages, edges soiled and stamped. Cover is shiny, clean and somewhat worn with scratches, indents, creases and edge wear. Spine is creased... Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 296 p. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1987
ISBN-13:9780449213940ISBN:0449213943
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Minor chipping on back cover. No other flaws. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 304 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Fawcett Crest, New York
Date Published: 1958
Description: Very Good. No Jacket. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. No spine creasing. Some light cover creases. Light tanning of the pages due to age. Light edge wear. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books, Westminister, Maryland, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780449213940ISBN:0449213943
Description: Good. 0449213943 Mass market paperback, previously read used book in good condition, varying degrees of shelf wear, some spine creases, m...02305318 _ read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: SparkNotes, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9781586633745ISBN:1586633740
Description: Very Good. 1586633740 Mass market paperback, previously read used book in very good condition, may have slight worn corners and varying degre...02507303 _ read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1987
ISBN-13:9780449213940ISBN:0449213943
Description: Acceptable. Overall below average used book. May have highlighting, underlining, notes, price sticker on cover, or be an ex-library book. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: SparkNotes
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9781586633745ISBN:1586633740
Description: Acceptable. Overall below average used book. May have highlighting, underlining, notes, price sticker on cover, or be an ex-library book. read more
"I thought this book was exceptional. As with any book dealing with the horrors of war, it is not exactly a pleasant book to read. It is not supposed to be. It is full of violence and death and loss and a kind of perpetual suffering and terror that most of us have never and will never experience. What I thought was so extraordinary about this book was the author's ability to so vividly place the reader right there on the front line with the main character -- not just in terms of what he physically experienced and witnessed, but all the complicated and intense (and at times, numbed) emotions that came with those experiences. There is no glory here. This book is RAW. But it is also deeply poignant, striking, and beautifully written.
Though the books is told through the eyes of a German soldier during WWI, as I read it, I of course could not help but think of our own troops currently fighting in (or just returned home from) Iraq and Afghanistan. While there is no way for me to ever come remotely close to fully comprehending what any individual soldier has gone through, this book, I think, does the best job at describing all the ranges of experiences than any other war book I've read.
Whenever I hear the news of a newly fallen soldier, I am always struck by how young they are. Eighteen years old. Early 20's. These are fully grown men and women in terms of their bravery, courage, honor and sacrifice; however, they really are still just children. Ten years previous they were still in elementary school. They haven't had a chance to fully live life before they are surrounded by death.
Remarque writes:
"We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world, and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. "
and
"I am young. I am twenty years old. Yet, I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another.... What would our fathers do if we suddenly stood up and came before them and proffered our account? What do they expect of us, if a time ever comes when the war is over? ...Our knowledge of life is limited to death. What will happen afterward, and what shall come out of us?"
A difficult book in terms of subject matter and intensity, but I highly recommend it."
"I don't know why it took me so long to get to "All Quiet on the Western Front," but I'm glad I finally read it and am grateful to my friend Rose for recommending it. The book, first published in the late 1920s, is an absolutely heartbreaking, wonderfully written novel about the permanent damage done to those who fight in wars. Few anti-war novels written since have matched Erich Maria Remarque's unsettling book, and I doubt any have surpassed it.
Given how famous "All Quiet" is, there's little need for me to say much about it here. (Plus, it's so much easier to write negative reviews than positive ones, and I have absolutely nothing bad to say about this book.) There are several heart-rending passages that I expect will stick with me for a long time, though, and that I feel the need to mention: Paul Bäumer's leave, during which he finds it nearly impossible to relate normally to his family after his experiences on the front; Paul's time in a shell hole with French soldier Gérard Duval; the brief interlude Paul and his comrades spend with a group of French girls, and how the gal with whom he'd been paired treats him in the end; and, of course, the scene near the book's end involving Stanislaus Katczinsky, easily "All Quiet"'s most interesting character. (I won't say anything about the scene with Kat so as not to spoil it for those who haven't read the book yet.)
One final thought, which I bring up because of Logan's comment that he didn't like "All Quiet," which he last read in high school. I've talked about this before, most recently in my review of "The Sea Wolf," and I feel the need to bring it up again: Many American readers, it seems, have bad memories of great works of literature they were made to read in school. That they were forced to read the books is, of course, part of the problem, but I also think schoolchildren often are assigned books they're not yet ready for. I don't mean that they're not smart enough to read and understand the books, but rather that they're not mature enough to have the books resonate properly with them. This would definitely be true of "All Quiet." It would be the most unusual of high school students -- one in a hundred, perhaps, if that many -- who could truly appreciate the issues raised in this book.
I would encourage anyone who hasn't read "All Quiet" yet to check it out. And for those who read it in school and were left with a bad taste in their mouths, it's probably time to revisit the book. That means you, Logan."
"This book is so raw and grusome that I'm sure a story like Paul's is real. I wasn't sure what to give this book because, well, it was just so hopelessly depressing. It made me so depressed that at times that I just had to put it down and breath. I don't regret reading it because I learned a lot about what war is really like but I just felt so hopeless about everything. If you are anything like me and can't handle a lot of hopelessness then have something like Winnie the Pooh on hand to cheer you up."
"No person should enlist in any armed service without being required to read this book and make a report. No officer in any branch of the military should command people without having read this book. It is a powerful book from the insight of one who has fought and fallen, risen up and fought again. Remarque tells the story from the perspective of a school boy, Paul, who enlists at the hectoring of his schoolmaster. He finds himself with his comrades fighting for the Kaiser and not truly understanding the meaning of the savagery he encounters. In one scene he and his troop meet the Kaiser and they begin to question why they are fighting. One finally answers that the Kaiser must have a war, else he'd not be remembered, and another comrade adds that the generals are hungry for recognition as well. It is not enough to say that this is an anti-war book without noting that it is anti-patriotism, too. One can love one's country and not be called into question if one rebukes the need for war. Blind patriotism has lead to too many tragic blunders on the part of all world leaders."
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