3/21/22 Micro-post No. 3, All Quiet on the Western Front

     I'll be honest here, a WWI book written in 1929 didn't seem super exciting, but it was recommended to me and I really didn't have any better ideas. So far, All Quiet on the Western Front hasn't subverted those expectations, and remains pretty unexciting. However, it doesn't seem like this book is trying to be exciting. It's trying to be a gritty, realistic depiction of war and the hell that its witnesses must endure. The author, Erich Maria Remarque, served Germany in WWI and witnessed the horrors of war firsthand. As a result, this novel tries to be particularly real. No over-the-top action, no snarky one-liners. Just hell. All Quiet on the Western Front exhibits war as much less of a physical hell than a psychological one. Though the physical brutality of war is certainly depicted, Remarque uses a first-person POV to throw the reader straight into the war from the perspective of Paul Baumer. Baumer's pain resonates with the reader as he uses tactful articulation to convey the precise state of mind one experiences when bearing witness to the absolute worst of humanity. Even in the grim mood strewn throughout the novel, Remarque beautifully makes the reader feel war. Not the bullet wounds, nor the shells, but simply the pure and absolute destruction of one's mind. The book may not be too exciting, but that isn't the point. Anyway, pretty cool book (9.5/10. Read it)

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