For the hundredth anniversary of the start of WW1, our book club decided to read our own choice of a novel or biography of those days. After my trouble with Birdsong, I wasn't particularly looking forward to this story of the war seen through the eyes and mind of one schoolboy turned soldier. But I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.
Although "All Quiet on the Western Front" is written from the point of view of a young German soldier, it could quite easily have been a portrait of a soldier any nationality. The horrors are all the same. Not only is this book very well written, it has been brilliantly translated by Brian Murdoch. This is the best translation of any novel written in a foreign language that I have come across. It feels as if the book was written in English, not something I have experienced before.
Fortunately, the story only visits the front line on limited occasions. When it does, the death and injuries to the infantry are vivid but sympathetically described, if there is such a thing. But what is far more acceptable are the times our narrator, Paul Baumer, is in training, back behind the lines, on leave or in hospital. There are even some amusing events. His ruminations on what is to be a soldier plucked from his last year at school are what makes this book special. I felt that the last third of the book flagged slightly but I am glad I made this book my choice.
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