All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
I am slowly making my way through all the classics I promised myself to read before I kick the bucket. I am absolutely delighted to have read this powerful book, which shows the brutality of war from the perspective of an ordinary soldier.
All Quiet on the Western Front follows Paul Bäumer, a young German soldier who enlists in World War I with his classmates after being inspired by patriotic school propaganda. Once at the front, they quickly discover that war is not glorious at all, but brutal, random, and dehumanising.
Paul and his fellow soldiers endure bombardments, gas attacks, hunger, and constant fear. They lose their closest friends one by one. Paul becomes emotionally numb as he watches his generation destroyed physically and psychologically.
Near the end of the novel, his last surviving friends are killed. Finally, Paul himself dies on an unusually quiet day, with the army report noting only that “all quiet on the Western Front.” His face appears peaceful, as if relieved that the war is finally over for him.
The reading is not entirely bleak. There are the deep bonds between comrades, the warmth of family (his mother makes his favourite jam cakes), and joyful moments, such as catching and roasting a goose.
The author never explicitly states an anti-war position. Instead, he simply tells the truth about war. And the truth speaks for itself. I find the book painfully timely: there are still so many wars and conflicts around the world. I would recommend leaders such as Putin and Xi read this.