All Quiet On The Western Front

I recently re-read one of my favorite novels, "All Quiet On The Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque and was reminded of the power of the book. The following is a passage from the book that everyone should read. " Gradually a few of us venture to stand up. And I am given crutches to hobble around on. But I do not make much use of them; I cannot bear Albert's gaze as I move about the room. His eyes always follow me with such a strange look. So I sometimes escape to the corridor;-there I can move about more freely.

On the next floor below are the abdominal and spine  cases, head wounds and double amputations. On the right side of the wing are the jaw wounds, gas cases,nose,ear,and neck wounds. On the left the blind and the lung wounds,pelvis wounds, wounds in the joints,wounds in the testicles,wounds in the intestines. Here a man realizes for the first time how many places that a man can get hit.

 Two fellows die of tetanus. Their skin turns pale, their limbs stiffen,at last only their eyes live- stubbornly. Many of the wounded have their shattered limbs hanging free in the air from a gallows; underneath the wound a basin is placed into which the pus drips. Every two or three hours the vessel is emptied. Other men lie in stretching bandages with heavy weights hanging from the end of the bed. I see intestine wounds that are constantly full of excreta. The surgeons clerk shows me X-ray photographs of completely smashed hip-bones,knees,and shoulders.

A man cannot realize that above such shattered bodies there are still human faces in which life goes its daily round. And this is only one hospital,one single station; there are hundreds of thousands in Germany, hundreds of thousands in France, hundreds of thousands in Russia. How senseless is everything that can be written,done,or thought,when such things are possible. It must all be kies and of no account when the culture of of a thousand years could not prevent this stream of blood being poured out,these torture-chambers in their hundreds of thousands. A hospital alone shows what war is."

Book Review- All Quiet On The Western Front

At this writing, the first world war  has been over for 92 years. Only the very old have any memory of "The war to end all wars". All Quiet On The Western Front" is a novel of World War One written by a veteran of that war: Erich Maria Remarque. I have read many fiction and non-fiction books on the subject of war but none of them has affected me like All Quiet On The Western Front.

 Paul Baumer and his fellow classmates are bullied into joining the German army during World War One by their uber-nationalist teacher: Herr Kantorek. Baumer quickly finds out that the patriotic slogans spouted by his teacher have no connection to the horrifying reality of trench warfare.

 All Quiet On The Western Front was first published in 1928, but the writing is still fresh and the reader cares for the doomed men fighting a lost war. In my opinion, All Quiet On The Western Front is the best novel of the 20th century.