The title seems sort of self explanatory, has anyone ever read this book? What did you think of it? I'm building up a 'Post-MA reading list' and a good friend, someone whose opinion I trust, has recommended it to me. P.S. Should there be a sort of 'Recommend Book' thread where people can post a question about a book they are interested in? Or for people looking to expand their book-horizons?
I've seen the tail end of the movie version. Three scenes spring to mind: The MC with a dying French soldier, the MC in a cathedral/church, and the very last thing the MC does in the movie that I won't spoil for everyone. Having a recommendation thread would be an excellent idea, Lemex. There had been times I worried about flooding the Book Discussion forum with 'is this a good book to read?' threads.
I read this book back in 10th or 11th grade, which was a long time ago. I remember only bits and pieces of the book. From what I remember, it was a good enough book that I finished it before the deadline. It's certainly worth checking out.
The book, especially the ending is depressing, but I read is so long ago my memory of the writing is dim.
I've seen lots of movies about WWI, and studied it in multiple History lessons. However, nothing impacted my understanding of the war as much as All Quiet on the Western Front; it's simply that great.
I wonder if we took a poll asking who read that as an imperative and who read it as past tense 'read' if it would reveal anything about the readers. I read it as past tense, 'read'.
I haven't read it although I am aware of it. I think I may investigate further thanks to everyone's comments. @Lemex: That is a good idea in your first post. Get a thread started.
Because one can only contemplate such things with a psychology degree? It wouldn't be a degree one would need, it would be a well defined hypothesis and a lot of evidence that the conclusion one hypothesized would be supportable with the data collected. But of course, I was only suggesting it might be significant, I wasn't claiming that it was, thus the language: "I wonder ... if it would."
What I meant was, I wonder if someone with a psychology degree could tell us there is something significant about people reading it in the past or present tense.
I read it as a teen and again last year. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it but I would definitely recommend it.
I read it a couple of years ago and drank it all up from cover to cover. I bought a cheapy cheap cheap Vintage Classics imprint, in Asda (!), translation by Brian Murdoch. I turned down many many corners of the pages to bookmark beautiful things: "Presumably he is playing folk songs; the others hum the tunes with him. They are like dark hills, and the humming is deep, subterranean. The voice of the violin stands out like a slim girl above them, and it is bright and alone. The voices stop and the violin remains - it sounds thin in the night, as if it were freezing; you have to stand close by - it would probably be better in a room - out here it makes you sad to hear it wandering about, all alone." It's really gently played, unlike the film. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe surprised me that way too; I expected it to be over-sentimentalised dross because of the film, but it was a beautiful read.
