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andrewfuder's review against another edition
5.0
A fantastic WWI novel. On par with All Quiet on the Western Front. The injustice of the court-martial is infuriating.
ritchiiee's review against another edition
5.0
The book started of slow, with a little bit of jumping in between storylines. The author pictures the war in a realistic and gruesome way, which definitely leaves a impression behind. The second part of the book focuses more on the characters and how human lives were shed in the war, not only by enemy bullets, but friendly ones as well.
megangoodwin's review against another edition
5.0
This is a work of art. This book, out of all of the books that I have read, truly and completely capture the utter pointlessness, brutality, stupidity, unfairness, and horror of war.
ghost_name's review against another edition
2.0
Definitely boring in bits. It does have what feels like accurate descriptions of individuals during the war and that is engaging. Would be better as a short story. One of those rare times I've come across where the movie is better than the book.
5wamp_creature's review against another edition
4.0
Like a punch to the gut. Look elsewhere for subtlety and nuance. Delivers the anti-war goods.
suebarsby's review against another edition
5.0
(I'm sorry - I found this hard to write about without referring to the ending. Spoiler alert therefore)
Devastating. A WWI book I'd not heard of before my reading group chose it. Told with a lot of black humour, the story is based on a true story of an execution of French men after a failed attempt at taking 'the Pimple' a small patch of raised ground on the Western Front. The humour in the dialogue and authorial voice perhaps makes the ending harder to take, as you struggle to deal with the awfulness of what just happened.
The characters are well portrayed, the sense of place is excellent and the satirical authorial voice makes it very clear where Cobb's sympathies lie. The revisionist history of WWI that has started to take over the telling of the war had not yet reared its head when Cobb was writing and this is full of incompetent generals, unsympathetic commands and general stupidity.
Devastating. A WWI book I'd not heard of before my reading group chose it. Told with a lot of black humour, the story is based on a true story of an execution of French men after a failed attempt at taking 'the Pimple' a small patch of raised ground on the Western Front. The humour in the dialogue and authorial voice perhaps makes the ending harder to take, as you struggle to deal with the awfulness of what just happened.
The characters are well portrayed, the sense of place is excellent and the satirical authorial voice makes it very clear where Cobb's sympathies lie. The revisionist history of WWI that has started to take over the telling of the war had not yet reared its head when Cobb was writing and this is full of incompetent generals, unsympathetic commands and general stupidity.
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