I read a fair amount of fiction set in war, and any list of my favorite books will include selections from this genre. We learn so much about people when they are in extremis, and we learn about those not at the front as well, what they are willing to subject their young (mostly) men to for the opportunity to be a part of a shared goal, what twisted rationalizations they will make. In this instance we are speaking of German soldiers, and certainly the hideousness of the reason for the fight makes it worse. Life though is not black and white, and though others might fight for more noble goals, they do so by committing vile actions and allowing their soldiers to endure things no human should endure. We must look at our choices. How is it possible there is not a way to compete that makes more sense? I guess the answer is that we cannot change this unless all the players agree -- as soon as one bullet is fired we all lose our humanity -- and we are never ever going to all agree not to use what might exists. As Vonnegut said about anti-war books, " “Why don’t you write an anti-glacier book instead?" Until we humans annihilate ourselves there will always be war and glaciers.

This book is perfect in its hideousness. In plain and honest language Remarque takes us through events that make it seem that separating boys from their humanity was the point of the war rather than a side effect. Then he takes us to scenes where those same boys are just boys who love their mother and deal with their physical and romantic longings (and then shows us how those moments of purity are undermined by naked survival instinct.) This is one of those rare books I believe that all should read (and in this genre I would absolutely include Matterhorn and The Things They Carried and likely one or two others.) Ironically this book about Nazi German (thanks James, that should have said German) soldiers reveals to us how much alike we all are in some terrible ways.