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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Very eloquent writing I can see why it is hailed as one of the best war books, many common themes and thoughts of war in media seem to have roots here. Themes I recognized were tribalism, loss of innocence, destruction of a generation, patriotism, and good vs evil but most of all the brutality and futility of war. Another standout feature were the horrific and detailed passages on the human bodies left behind after bombings, buddy spared nothing and was so specific it seemed his real war experience came through.
"Kantorek would say we stood on the threshold of life. And so it would seem. We had as taken no root. The war swept us away. For the others, the older men, it is but an interruption. The are able to think beyond it[...] We know only that in some strange and melancholy way we have become a wasteland" pg.20
"He is entirely alone now with his little life of nineteen years, and cries because it leaves him." pg. 31
"I feel excited; but I do not want to be, for that is not right. I want that quiet rapture again. I want to feel the same powerful, nameless urge that I used to feel when I turned to my books. The breath of desire, shall fill me again, melt the heavy, dead lump of lead that lies somewhere in me and waken again the impatience of the future, the quick joy in the world of thought, it shall being back again the lost eagerness of my youth." pg. 171
all of pg. 194 on lack of humanity "after this annihilation of all human feeling"
"I am no longer a shuddering speck of existence, alone in the darkness; -I belong to them and they to me; we all share the same fear and the same life, we are nearer than lovers, in a simpler, a harder way; I could bury my face in them, in these voices, these words that have saved me and will stand by me" pg. 212
"The silence spreads. I talk and must talk. So I speak to him and say to him: 'Comrade, I did not want to kill you. If you jumped in here again, I would not do it, if you would be sensible too. But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response. It was that abstraction I stabbed. But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death[...] Take twenty years of my life, comrade, and stand up- take more, for I do not know what I can even attempt to do with it now'. pg. 223
"And this is only one hospital, one single station; there are hundreds of thousands in Germany, hundreds of thousands in France, hundreds of thousands in Russia. How senseless is everything that can ever be written, done, or thought, when such things are possible. It must be all lies and of no account when the culture of a thousand years could not prevent this stream of blood being poured out{...} I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another[...] all my generation is experiencing these things with me" pg. 263
"life is simply one continual watch against the menace of death; it transformed is into unthinking animals..." pg. 273
"Now if we go back we will be weary, broken, burnt out, rootless, and without hope. We will not be able to find our way anymore." pg. 294
"Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more. I am so alone and so without hope that I can confront them without fear. The life that has borne me through these years is still in my hands and my eyes. Whether I have subdued it, I know not. But so long as it is there it will seek its own way out, heedless of the will that is within me." pg. 295
"Kantorek would say we stood on the threshold of life. And so it would seem. We had as taken no root. The war swept us away. For the others, the older men, it is but an interruption. The are able to think beyond it[...] We know only that in some strange and melancholy way we have become a wasteland" pg.20
"He is entirely alone now with his little life of nineteen years, and cries because it leaves him." pg. 31
"I feel excited; but I do not want to be, for that is not right. I want that quiet rapture again. I want to feel the same powerful, nameless urge that I used to feel when I turned to my books. The breath of desire, shall fill me again, melt the heavy, dead lump of lead that lies somewhere in me and waken again the impatience of the future, the quick joy in the world of thought, it shall being back again the lost eagerness of my youth." pg. 171
all of pg. 194 on lack of humanity "after this annihilation of all human feeling"
"I am no longer a shuddering speck of existence, alone in the darkness; -I belong to them and they to me; we all share the same fear and the same life, we are nearer than lovers, in a simpler, a harder way; I could bury my face in them, in these voices, these words that have saved me and will stand by me" pg. 212
"The silence spreads. I talk and must talk. So I speak to him and say to him: 'Comrade, I did not want to kill you. If you jumped in here again, I would not do it, if you would be sensible too. But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response. It was that abstraction I stabbed. But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death[...] Take twenty years of my life, comrade, and stand up- take more, for I do not know what I can even attempt to do with it now'. pg. 223
"And this is only one hospital, one single station; there are hundreds of thousands in Germany, hundreds of thousands in France, hundreds of thousands in Russia. How senseless is everything that can ever be written, done, or thought, when such things are possible. It must be all lies and of no account when the culture of a thousand years could not prevent this stream of blood being poured out{...} I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another[...] all my generation is experiencing these things with me" pg. 263
"life is simply one continual watch against the menace of death; it transformed is into unthinking animals..." pg. 273
"Now if we go back we will be weary, broken, burnt out, rootless, and without hope. We will not be able to find our way anymore." pg. 294
"Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more. I am so alone and so without hope that I can confront them without fear. The life that has borne me through these years is still in my hands and my eyes. Whether I have subdued it, I know not. But so long as it is there it will seek its own way out, heedless of the will that is within me." pg. 295
Really, really depressing. I think this was the book I was supposed to read before "The Sun Also Rises"...
challenging
sad
medium-paced
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
4.5 ⭐️ this book is so haunting. i might have to rewatch the movie now, but im scared.