Thursday, December 3, 2015

Book Review- All Quiet on the Western Front

For the Alphabet Soup challenge, Mount TBR challenge, New Author challenge and the Classics Club I read Erich Remarque's classic war novel All Quiet on the Western Front.
Synopsis from Goodreads: Paul Baumer enlisted with his classmates in the German army of World War I. Youthful, enthusiastic, they become soldiers. But despite what they have learned, they break into pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches. And as horrible war plods on year after year, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principles of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against each other--if only he can come out of the war alive.
This was an absolutely beautifully written book. One of the most beautifully written books I've ever read actually. I don't think I ever got a better glimpse of what a soldiers' life is like until this book. The emotions of the soldiers are displayed with such realness. I would highly recommend this book to anyone high school and up.
To close I'd like to share a favorite quote from the book.
And even if these scenes of our youth were given back to us we would hardly know what do to. The tender, secret influence that passed from them into us could not rise again. We might be amongst them and move in them; we might remember and love them and be stirred by the right of them. But it would be like gazing at the photography of a dead comrade; those are his features, it is his face, and the days we spent together take on a mournful life in the memory; but the man himself it is not. 
Read it!

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