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A review by thaurisil
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
4.0
Set in World War I, the narrator is Paul Baumann, a young German soldier who, together with his classmates, enlisted in the war. When the novel starts, he is already disillusioned by war, but he keeps his emotions hidden deep within himself, making it a point never to probe them, and focusing only on superficialities and comradeship, for he fears being overwhelmed by his emotions. His fears come true when he is sent on break. At home, he discovers how different he has become from his young self, and from the people around him. His mother, the only one who understands that he does not want to talk about war, is dying of cancer. He then goes to a training camp where he sees Russian prisoners-of-war, and reflects on how peasants and common men are made enemies of each other by political leaders. When he returns to the battlefield, he is no longer the same soldier he was. He fears death more, and his fears slow down his reflexes and weaken his judgments. It is only his camaraderie with his comrades that keeps him going. He gets a wound, is hospitalised, and sees illness and death before returning to the frontline again. He eventually dies, after most of his comrades are already dead.
This is a book that could only have been written by someone who had fought in the war. Remarque wrote this book 10 years after WWI. A few years later, the Nazi regime burned his book. He refused to fight in WWII, escaping to Switzerland instead. The inner turmoil and trauma that Baumann experiences are clearly ones that Remarque himself experienced. The emotions are complex. How do you explain that reuniting with loved ones can be sad and distressing, that the veneer of superficiality is necessary to keep one alive, that the breaths of comrades can be as soothing as a mother's voice? These are things that cannot be imagined by one who has never experienced them. Remarque does an excellent job describing them and making them come alive for all the rest of us to understand the emotional damage that the German soldiers underwent. Several times, Baumann reflects that even if he were to survive the war, he would not know how to live in a civilian society, for all he knows is war. That Remarque could survive the war, return to writing, and put these experiences down in words that are so raw and captivating is extraordinary.
This is a book that could only have been written by someone who had fought in the war. Remarque wrote this book 10 years after WWI. A few years later, the Nazi regime burned his book. He refused to fight in WWII, escaping to Switzerland instead. The inner turmoil and trauma that Baumann experiences are clearly ones that Remarque himself experienced. The emotions are complex. How do you explain that reuniting with loved ones can be sad and distressing, that the veneer of superficiality is necessary to keep one alive, that the breaths of comrades can be as soothing as a mother's voice? These are things that cannot be imagined by one who has never experienced them. Remarque does an excellent job describing them and making them come alive for all the rest of us to understand the emotional damage that the German soldiers underwent. Several times, Baumann reflects that even if he were to survive the war, he would not know how to live in a civilian society, for all he knows is war. That Remarque could survive the war, return to writing, and put these experiences down in words that are so raw and captivating is extraordinary.