All Quiet on the Western Front (book review)

All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, is the moving story of Paul Baumer, a fictional German soldier who enlists in World War I. Young, only twenty years old, already his life is filled with death. He must face it everyday, and somehow manages to elude it even while his comrades and friends fall around him. The book relates various escapades, travels, as well as horrors that this young man and his friends face during their years on the front. As the years go by, Paul realizes that the only difference between him and his enemies, the ones he kills every day, is their uniform, and he decides to do everything he can to help the world avoid future wars--if only he can make it out of this one.

This was a wonderful book, but very sad. Paul, only twenty, was already much wiser about the world than much older men were. He was used to the sight of men without arms, faces, or legs. But he and his friends still found time for amusement. I thought it was very interesting to hear from his point of view, and to learn about what it felt like to actually be there.