Chantel's Reviews > All Quiet on the Western Front

** spoiler alert ** It is important to note that most of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the book's subject matters & those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on the consequences of war, extreme violence, the death of a loved one, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), & others.

The marvellous philosophizing of the interconnectedness of humanity has often played second fiddle to the meandering of egotistical villains. The stories of crafty titans such as Bradbury’s 1952 novella “A Sound of Thunder” encourage eager minds to collapse at the thought of consequence. Yet, when faced with the Leviathan of all repercussions—the mass death of the species—not one leading mind hitches on the intentional demise they set forward when declaring their country at war.

The oversimplification of this matter is done intentionally. In today’s day & age, our news sources are littered with bombings, shootings, painful burns, & cataclysmic catastrophes. Every waking moment brings us to the forefront of what we have never been able to shake—our lust for destruction. Should we ask ourselves if we are in fact the antagonist? If we shoot the gun is it not the weapon that is responsible for slicing arteries? Is not our agency as individuals stunted by the nation’s need for peace? Year after year, we commemorate the end of the war to end all wars. Year after year, we deliberate whether to welcome refugees fleeing from war.

When I opted to read this book it was by random selection. The story is so highly acclaimed—the best war novel of all time—I felt inclined to believe that reading this book would pose no loss for me. Yet, as I flipped the yellowed pages of the old story I grew confused. What was Remarque trying to achieve? Was his intent to free himself from his own experiences? Did he believe that war was an inevitable part of human existence? Did his main character ever survive the things that happened to him?

I haven’t read enough war novels to gauge the explicit nature of the claim that this one, over all the others, is the best. I am confident in my claim that this book contains a good story, one I would argue is reflective of the lived experiences of thousands of individuals, some of whom died in mud & searing pain, prevented from liberating their thorax from the croaking moans of war. Perhaps, for folks such as this, the story poses a petal on the flower’s stem; allowing the nameless voices of victim & perpetrator to rest.

As for myself, I found my reading experience enthralling because the main character, Paul, is a man who weaves a good tale. In the opening lines of the book, Paul via the author, rests easy in the knowledge that the reader will continue down the road with him. Simple prose decorates the pages of this narrative in a way that shapes the reality of brutal circumstances without leaving the reader on the side of the road to perish alongside the soldiers. Though we often take for granted the fact that a book is a story of something other than our lives, it is rather touching when a strange situation eases the reader into its nucleus as though the threat were our own.

By allowing readers to wander alongside Paul—a man who is brave, charming, uncontrollably dissociated, & pained—the author has granted the reader permission to forget that there exists a good vs. evil in war. When tinged with the reality that eviscerates our extra personal relations with the species at large for fear of the “other” overtaking the asserted tranquillity of our own communities, we often forget that to another we are “other” & perhaps, we pose just as much a threat as the nightmare that looms in our restful state.

Paul’s guidance throughout this story allowed for a point of view that was removed. The issue that arises with this approach is that the threat of losing the main character is rather slim. This is not to say that there needs to be a danger for the reader to feel connected to the narrator. Rather, when the bombs were flying & Paul squeezed closer to the core of the earth while in hiding, I never felt that this was the end—there were far too many pages left. However, one may advocate for the ambiguous ending. Perhaps Paul lies dying as the story draws to a close or, perhaps the writing eases into omniscience whereupon another narrator takes heed.

I did not feel as though Remarque would allow Paul to die. Again, this is not a bad thing. However, as I grew to rely on Paul to communicate with me in an indirect fashion, I feared the moment when the book would come to an end. When Paul returned home to visit his family, I felt we had reached the tenderness of the story. Unfortunately, as many are aware, this tenderness is not permitted time to bloom. One cannot take a pause from horrible circumstances to sigh & sleep deeply when the anxious threat of a return looms on the periphery.

These scenes drew me to Paul. Though many of the older generations in his small German village had certainly experienced war before, no one seemed to take death seriously. I am not in a position to reflect on this stance with astute accuracy—I am not of a generation that has experienced war firsthand, nor have I studied this position at length. I brood over the logistics of confidently erasing the worries of young people as they go away to become burned alive by Mustard Gas & shot to pieces by weapons the likes of which had never been seen before.

The intimacy of the return home, the journey on the train, & the knowledge of an end to the world that goes on without us; left me feeling overwhelmed. I felt ashamed to see so many people boisterous when speaking of the ambitions of war. No tears, no worries, only the depraved eagerness to kill. When someone they loved was killed on the front, the narrative shifts to heroic praise, & sadness in every remaining aspect of life. Why have we been allowed to carry on this in this way?

When I think back to how this story made me feel while reading it, I’m not sure that I have the words. I wasn’t necessarily sad or shocked. The Great War is often categorized as a social reset in that it changed the way we fight; the ways in which we view the enemy & the tingling drip of damage to the psyche. All of this is rather tedious as I do not believe that there was ever a time in history when gastric violence was not preceded by traumatic injury to the brain. Arguably, very few people go about life unaltered by their environments. Here I return again to the blame I want to shift onto the shoulders of all who smiled & waived the youth away into the fields where they remain unhoused in the soil.

There is room within this story to question the stance of the reader. Does the reader believe that war is worthwhile? Is there a means to an end when relying on violence? Is every death paired with sorrow? Within this story, Paul is often granted moments of what I will call reprieve. He is allowed to step outside of the redundancy of the situation wherein one party is set to die & the other to vanquish. To see one’s friends die is a horrible experience no matter which side you are on. Perhaps it is our downfall that we cannot collectivize our understanding of what it means to be good & just. We find ourselves habitually stuck in the complex role of alien invasions, cowboys & Indians, battlefields, poltergeists, & victors.

Inside this book lies the truth that one man sought to communicate. The rotting flesh on the living man, the nibbling teeth of the trench rats, the dulled eyes, mucus & fluid, starvation & comradery, friendship & solitude. Maybe this is the best war novel ever written because it comes from an intimate place of nuance. Maybe there is room inside this story to reflect on what it means to meet oneself on the battlefield from which one will surely, never return.

Ultimately, this is a good book & one that I am certain a war scholar would be better suited to dissect. Paul is a character who is easy to root for as he maintains a veteran boyish perception of the world. He cares for his family & he cares for his friends. He understands that death befalls us all & knows that we are unlucky when we play at spades with sharp edges. In the mundane recalling of cigarette smoking, bread mongering, & body decaying landscape of the foreign land where war-ravaged human life, there is Paul. The man who understood that between good & evil, there he stood.