Last Post, My Review.

This book was definitely a good choice for the class, it was really well written, but it also really is historically accurate (sometimes, a little too much for me). Either way though, whether you thought the book was amazing because of how realistic it was, or horrifying, there's no taking away from the fact that Remarque really did make some points that were so true to the real feelings of WWI soldiers. When he was describing the war scenes, I almost felt like I was there. A little too close to the actual war. I think this is great for an author to be able to do this. His descriptions of the battles, the bombardments, and Paul's moments of horror were so vivid and clear that you could almost hear the bombs, or see the men around Paul. He describes the scene after an attack, "into our pierced and shattered souls bores the torturing image of the brown earth with the greasy sun and the convulsed and dead soldiers..." I can imagine the ground, covered with the picture of soldiers, torn apart and silent, but then hear the rest of the commotion when he continues to describe the scene. At one point he says "My hands grow cold and my flesh creeps; and yet the night is warm. Only the mist is cold, this mysterious mist that trails over the dead and sucks them from their last, creeping life." When I read this and while I'm reading it again, I shivered and get goosebumps. It's so creepy, and the mood is so chilling that I honestly feel the cold. Remarque clearly explained the thought process of a soldier, and even though the book was a little too graphic for me, I do think it was so necessary to read it, because otherwise I wouldn't have really known what it was like for them, or what war was like, or how they felt when they came home. This book (tehe) disillusioned me to the real facts of war, coming from a real soldier himself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Maria_Remarque
This is the wikipedia for the author. I really thought it was interesting to read about him, and where he came from and his story. One thing I read was really interesting, he was injured in the leg, arm, and neck during the war. Sound familiar? Same thing happened to Paul.