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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
"Han ville aldrig höra det skarpa lilla kastanjettsmattret från en kulspruta eller det gälla visslandet från en granat som kommer nerdykande från himlen eller det långsamma mullret när den träffade eller vinandet från en flygmaskin där ovanför eller skriken från en grabb som försöker tala om för nån att han har fått en kula i magen och frukosten håller på att rinna ut genom hålet och varför kan ingen stanna och hjälpa honom men det är bara det att ingen hör honom för alla andra är lika rädda. Fy fan."
dark
emotional
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
UPDATED**
So. It's been 5 years now (jesus) since I first read "Johnny Got His Gun." To this day, its audiobook is one of the best audio performances I've ever listened to. The actor's ability to invoke such youthful optimism yet spiteful and tragic sentiments is phenomenal; his reading of the scenes when Joe slowly realizes his physical state will always haunt me for years to come. Please, for the love of God, experience "Johnny Got His Gun" through its audiobook.
While listening to the audiobook, I was reminded of Joe as his own character, beyond the politics Trumbo expresses through/as him. Like the bakery he used to work at and the pie "incident," his girlfriend he left behind and other roundabouts with women, including one whom his best friend slept with, and of course, the hallucinations of Jesus Christ from Tucson and Trumbo's reframing of the story of Jesus's birth. What I now realize all these years and an English degree later is how Trumbo uses these seemingly pointless scenes to demonstrate how Americans invoke military ideals like honor, loyalty, dignity, liberty, duty, etc. in their everyday lives. Why does a violent organization claim to embody these ideals when you, as an American citizen, heck, as a human being, already do?
I think the term "The Great American Novel" is overrated and saturated by white narratives; however, if I were to give one book that... honor, it would be "Johnny Got His Gun," no question asked.
So. It's been 5 years now (jesus) since I first read "Johnny Got His Gun." To this day, its audiobook is one of the best audio performances I've ever listened to. The actor's ability to invoke such youthful optimism yet spiteful and tragic sentiments is phenomenal; his reading of the scenes when Joe slowly realizes his physical state will always haunt me for years to come. Please, for the love of God, experience "Johnny Got His Gun" through its audiobook.
While listening to the audiobook, I was reminded of Joe as his own character, beyond the politics Trumbo expresses through/as him. Like the bakery he used to work at and the pie "incident," his girlfriend he left behind and other roundabouts with women, including one whom his best friend slept with, and of course, the hallucinations of Jesus Christ from Tucson and Trumbo's reframing of the story of Jesus's birth. What I now realize all these years and an English degree later is how Trumbo uses these seemingly pointless scenes to demonstrate how Americans invoke military ideals like honor, loyalty, dignity, liberty, duty, etc. in their everyday lives. Why does a violent organization claim to embody these ideals when you, as an American citizen, heck, as a human being, already do?
I think the term "The Great American Novel" is overrated and saturated by white narratives; however, if I were to give one book that... honor, it would be "Johnny Got His Gun," no question asked.
This is such a horrific story, so I can't really say that I LIKED it, but it was executed in a really interesting way. It felt really heavy-handed at parts but, hell, I can't imagine it any other way. Chapter 10 was my favorite, and the ideas presented were done so in a really solid way (not to say they aren't in the rest of the novel, but I felt it here in particular).
UPDATE PT. II 9/20/22: keeping the rating but fuck the guy who told me i should read this lol. not cuz he told me to read it, he's just an asshole. <3
UPDATE 9/17/22: changing this to 4 stars for its poignancy and excellent commentary on the injustice of war and senseless violence. feels wrong to give this and a colleen hoover book the same rating.
perhaps the most brutal portrayal of human suffering i’ve ever read, this book makes the ultimate case against the horrors of war. i tried to write a more articulate review but everything just turned into rambling. so, if you’re vehemently anti-war or you’re on the fence about the issue, this book may still open your eyes to things you were previously blind to. although fictional, the seemingly exaggerated effects of the war on joe are representative of the realities of many veterans and survivors of active combat.
i only give it 3* stars because it was not all that interesting to me, personally. it’s a very impactful novel that packs a mighty punch in a relatively short amount of time, but as someone who already agreed with trumbo’s thesis (albeit not nearly as passionately), i felt myself losing interest at several points. i also wouldn’t call this an “enjoyable” reading experience, either, since the entire thing is about extreme anguish and suffering. i recognize the importance of the message and the timelessness of the narrative, and i believe i certainly gained insight from reading it, but i won’t go rush out to recommend it to anyone anytime soon (unlike someone i know).
UPDATE 9/17/22: changing this to 4 stars for its poignancy and excellent commentary on the injustice of war and senseless violence. feels wrong to give this and a colleen hoover book the same rating.
perhaps the most brutal portrayal of human suffering i’ve ever read, this book makes the ultimate case against the horrors of war. i tried to write a more articulate review but everything just turned into rambling. so, if you’re vehemently anti-war or you’re on the fence about the issue, this book may still open your eyes to things you were previously blind to. although fictional, the seemingly exaggerated effects of the war on joe are representative of the realities of many veterans and survivors of active combat.
i only give it 3* stars because it was not all that interesting to me, personally. it’s a very impactful novel that packs a mighty punch in a relatively short amount of time, but as someone who already agreed with trumbo’s thesis (albeit not nearly as passionately), i felt myself losing interest at several points. i also wouldn’t call this an “enjoyable” reading experience, either, since the entire thing is about extreme anguish and suffering. i recognize the importance of the message and the timelessness of the narrative, and i believe i certainly gained insight from reading it, but i won’t go rush out to recommend it to anyone anytime soon (unlike someone i know).
Someone first recommended this book to me in 2003, a few weeks before Shock and Awe, a few months before my marriage to a newly commissioned Army officer, and a few short years before he served a 15-month deployment in Iraq. Thank god I didn't read this book back then because I would have lost my mind.
Even 14 years later, Johnny Got His Gun is the most terrifying and horrific book I've ever read.
It's also magnificent. The stream of consciousness takes a bit of getting used to, but it does what it's supposed to-- sending you hurting through the abyss of Joe's mind, unmoored from polite conventions of the living (like punctuation), and brings you uncomfortably close to the feelings of isolation, helplessness, and despair that Joe feels as he is trapped inside his own mind.
This is in no way an easy read, but one that I argue is absolutely necessary. I was always under the mistaken impression that this book was about the Vietnam War... What's blowing my mind right now is that Johnny Got His Gun was published TWO DAYS BEFORE HITLER INVADED POLAND. And now, in 2017, President Trump and his bloated ego are threatening war with North Korea as if it's all a game and I'm wondering if we have learned any lessons from any of this at all.
Johnny Got His Gun should be right there next to Slaughterhouse Five on every college freshman's required reading list. Policymakers should have this on their desk. Ordinary citizens should do (what the generals in the book would not) which is look the horrors of war in the face and then reckon with their own conscience, for this is the reality of war:
“They died crying in their minds like little babies. They forgot the thing they were fighting for the thing they were dying for. They thought about things a man can understand. They died yearning for the face of a friend. They died whimpering for the voice of a mother a father a wife a child. They died with their hearts sick for one more look at the place where they were born please god just one more look. They died moaning and sighing for life. They knew what was important. They knew that life was everything and they died with screams and sobs. They died with only one thought in their minds and that was I want to live I want to live I want to live.”
― Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun
Even 14 years later, Johnny Got His Gun is the most terrifying and horrific book I've ever read.
It's also magnificent. The stream of consciousness takes a bit of getting used to, but it does what it's supposed to-- sending you hurting through the abyss of Joe's mind, unmoored from polite conventions of the living (like punctuation), and brings you uncomfortably close to the feelings of isolation, helplessness, and despair that Joe feels as he is trapped inside his own mind.
This is in no way an easy read, but one that I argue is absolutely necessary. I was always under the mistaken impression that this book was about the Vietnam War... What's blowing my mind right now is that Johnny Got His Gun was published TWO DAYS BEFORE HITLER INVADED POLAND. And now, in 2017, President Trump and his bloated ego are threatening war with North Korea as if it's all a game and I'm wondering if we have learned any lessons from any of this at all.
Johnny Got His Gun should be right there next to Slaughterhouse Five on every college freshman's required reading list. Policymakers should have this on their desk. Ordinary citizens should do (what the generals in the book would not) which is look the horrors of war in the face and then reckon with their own conscience, for this is the reality of war:
“They died crying in their minds like little babies. They forgot the thing they were fighting for the thing they were dying for. They thought about things a man can understand. They died yearning for the face of a friend. They died whimpering for the voice of a mother a father a wife a child. They died with their hearts sick for one more look at the place where they were born please god just one more look. They died moaning and sighing for life. They knew what was important. They knew that life was everything and they died with screams and sobs. They died with only one thought in their minds and that was I want to live I want to live I want to live.”
― Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I highly recommend this book because it was honest and raises many question about war and humanity. The perspective is from a man who loses his limbs and many of his senses, and it's heartbreaking but shows how much he has lost.
I almost cried a few times reading it, and it reminds me of The Things They Carried.
I'm definitely going to have to read this book again!
I almost cried a few times reading it, and it reminds me of The Things They Carried.
I'm definitely going to have to read this book again!
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This is a difficult read to give a numbered rating. The narrative is difficult to follow in places because it drifts in and out of dream states between past, present, reality and dream. However: a very necessary read when historical context is taken into account as well as the way the novel holds itself today - ‘you point the way and we will point the way.’ Beautiful prose forges a powerful anti war message, especially in Trumbo’s forward and his last few pages
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Blood