Review On All Quiet On The Western Front

            Going into class and hearing that we had to read a book, I was not excited.  As soon as I bought the book I procrastinated as long as possible.  I found myself starting the book three days before class.  To my surprise, the book was very good.  It is not a usual type of book I read, but I enjoyed it.  From reading some book reviews and ratings, I got the general consensus that the majority of the people enjoyed reading this book too.  One person wrote:  Clip:  “Have you ever finished the last page of a book and immediately turned to the first to begin it all over again? I never had, not before I read All Quiet on the Western Front.”  End Clip (http://www.mashmagazine.com/00april/aprilbook.html. 10-04-11)  Another person said, “I think the novel All Quiet on the Western Front is a well told story, mixing both fiction and non-fiction into a powerful novel which forces people to think deeply about war and all of its possible repercussions.”  (http://ezinearticles.com/?All-Quiet-on-the-Western-Front---A-Book-Review&id=84991. 10-04-11) 

            I believe the purpose of this book was to show the reality of the war.  Everybody was really pushing young men to enlist.  It did not take the young men long to figure out that enlisting was not at all what they thought it would be like.  When the book wraps up, it is clear that these young men never get a chance at a normal life.  They grow up, go to school, and die in the war.  One person wrote about what they thought the purpose of this book was.  They said, “Erich Maria Remarque created a historical novel that tells the story of what the war did to those who had so much to look forward to in life, and how the war shattered many of those hopes.”  (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/all-quiet-on-the-western-front-erich-maria-remarque/1100608826. 10-04-11)  Another person described the purpose in these words, “…it is not exactly a pleasant book to read. It is not supposed to be. It is full of violence and death and loss and a kind of perpetual suffering and terror that most of us have never and will never experience.”  (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/355697.All_Quiet_on_the_Western_Front. 10-04-11)  Over all this was a well perceived book.  It would be a good read for young adults and adults.  Reading this book would be time well spent.