All Quiet on the Western Front by
Erich Maria Remarque
My rating:
3 of 5 stars
I just finished reading it for the first time, I'm planning on going back through chapter by chapter and see what things I missed out on in my quick read (this is a very easy read). My initial reaction was that although there was an emotional impact (especially, in my opinion, the effective use of the third person narration in the final paragraphs), overall the book read like a period piece and seemed to almost like an anti-war track rather than a serious novel.
Certainly, the tone and style were drastically different than
by
Ernest Hemingway
or even a German authored book based more on the "common soldier" such as
Georg von der Vring. My initial reaction was to find that All's Quiet...in length, scope (I was surprised how little of the book was actually spent on the front line and the vagueness when it was), symbolism, language, structure, and character development did not live up to my usual expectation of serious literature. Honestly, I was very surprised that it has survived the period and become a world sensation. I also question the ethical character of the book, it seems to be a sweeping indictment of the older generation and leave us with the egocentric immature view of a very limited outlook. (Or am I just one of the civilians and just didn't get it?)
Now most of this however might actually work in Remarque's favor where it could be argued he crafted an unexpected book where the reality of war was not embellished, giving that harsh reality a faithful account. And if the construction of his book was indeed intentionally simple there may be much more that I have missed. For example, by chapter 11 I wondered if some of Paul's numbness has worn off on me and if that was intentionally set up by Remarque...did he want me to ALMOST be past feeling by the death announcement at the end?
The most compelling theme to me was the animal instinct that Remarque used to reduce the characters to their basic natures. He not only strips the main characters down to basic bodily functions, but there are also several passages that reflect on the difference between the soldier and an animal. For example ch 4 as they enter the "zone where the front begins and become on the the instant human animals". The impact of the horses' screams. The reaction of Paul toward "the suffering of the creature, the awful melancholy of life and the pitilessness of men" in chapter 8 as he reflects on the Russians. This was particularly interesting when WWI began the increased use of machinery in war, alluded to when the characters push into the enemy lines and are confronted by more airplanes and tanks.
Overall not what I was expecting, yet still more to think about.
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