I was very interested in reading this as my husband and I travelled to the battle sites of of WWI and WWII in the spring of 2016. We saw many battlefields and graveyards in the Netherlands, Belgium and France
Paul Baumer is the narrator of this story of the first world war. We follow Paul and his 6 schoolmates as they endure the camaraderie, training, combat, horror, death, destruction and hope. Until the last paragraph, he is the only survivor in Oct. 1918 and then he dies.
In my view, this is an excellent anti-war book. Paul starts out full of hope that the war won't last long but as it goes on, his opinions of the leadership of all governments involved become negative. He witnesses horrible battle sites, maiming of young men, trench warfare with rats and mud and dysentery. His comrades die and yet he still clings to a hope that he will make it out alive. He worries what life will be like after the war and whether the generation. The story studies the idea that this war was a battle of the egos of its leaders and was completely unnecessary and fruitless. It's a visceral account of a soldier's life as he faces the futility and destruction of the war. ( )