The Devonshire Arms, Wellsway, Dec 28th 2012.
Mark Th enjoyed the book and felt it was as vivid as the
Radio 4 programme ‘From Our Own Correspondent’ in detailing in very human terms
what it is like for combatants to experience traumatic times – in this case, a
war. The alternation of scenes which
foregrounded the stress of combat with the more relaxed scenes which
illustrated the simple pleasures that had to be snatched in recreation between
fighting (eating, smoking, resting) built through the book to create a picture
of almost unbearable stress at the front.
He had chosen it with very little forethought but was pleased to have
read it.
Steve was more positive still, and was surprised by this as
he had read the book years ago and it had made little impression on him at the
time. This time round, however, the
found the book a ‘stunning’ read – a simple ordinary soldier’s perspective that
is, for Steve, the yardstick against which all other war books should be
measured.
Rob, on the other hand, was less effusive and where Mark Th
had seen a powerful accretion of vignettes, Rob felt that the episodic
structure was fragmented so that overall the book was not particularly
engrossing. He was most drawn by the
powerful points the book made about the politics of war and the sense of
solidarity felt by the German protagonists with soldiers on the ‘other’ side.
Chris B also saw a journalistic quality in the writing: for
him it read like detailed reportage. His
research had shown, however, that the author had comparatively little
experience of active service at the front and there was some speculation on his
motives for writing the book. Chris also
noted the use of a second narrator at the end of the book. This had the effect of freeing the author, so
allowing Paul to escape a return to civilian life.
Ras also enjoyed the book’s basic realism and saw the
separation of soldiers and politicians as a key theme. The book was very effective in bringing home
the sense that this was the first large-scale industrial war, and at the same
time a war that people at home just did not understand. Here he saw some parallels
here with Blair and Iraq and the comparative lack of understanding on the part
of politicians and public.
Neil too, was very impressed by the book and pointed up some
scenes that were most convincing, such as the brutality of corporal Himmelstoss
during the training of the new recruits, and the hospital scene in the
church. These and other scenes combined
to create a powerful sense of waiting day in and day out to see the next
action.
Mark T also saw the book as very powerful and was moved by
the plight of the young recruit at the end, who shits his pants in his first
taste of battle and soon after this, dies.
Mark also noted the battle scene in the cemetery when exposed corpses
and fallen colleagues could not be distinguished. And some of us we weren’t
surprised that Mark particularly enjoyed the account of the night spent with
the three French girls they met by the canal.
Richard commented by email that he found it to be gripping,
excellently written, and it did not feel at all dated. He especially liked:
Remarque's descriptions of the depth of relationships between comrades in arms;
the reasons for their gallows humour - similar to the reasons that surgeons and
other hospital staff sometimes 'joke' about their patients); the sense of
awfulness and distance between them and ‘real people’ at home (one of the major
themes of the novel is the difficulty of soldiers to revert to civilian life
after having experienced extreme combat situations); the way that although all
the boys are young, their youth has left them; the section with Paul guarding
prisoners of war and his comments on what makes enemies enemies (politicians
deciding one way, and then maybe deciding the other way tomorrow).
He also found the
comments about the loss of youth and the responsibilities of the older
generations very telling. Although the actual nature of the war is different,
Richard, like others at the meeting, saw to be big overlaps between this and
(say) Iraq.
There was later further discussion of the lack of hatred
felt by the soldiers in the book and the popular drive to war when the full
impact is not realised by the civilian population.
