Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
pretty slow and heavy read but overall interesting and thought inducing.
Jesus Christ so much rage and horror and gore and war I love this I love it everyone should read this I'm dumbstruck.
So dark and disturbing! The claustrophobia, fear, and helplessness was palpable all the way through. The chaotic “train of thought” writing really added to the horror of the situation. What would you do if you woke up with no legs, arms, blind and deaf, with no idea where you are or what happened to you? Years go by and all you have is your thoughts. This book will stay with me.
This book will hurt you. It will make you question life. It will make you realize that people suck. The ending was so beautiful, the whole book is beautiful. Easily one of my top fav books now.
What a horribly difficult book.
What a powerful, mind blowing book.
This. This book should be required reading.
I like to think of myself as apolitical. The country has been running till now, and will continue run without my opinions or input, and despite its sacredness, without my vote.
While finding wars terrible, I've read and watched about so much bloodshed, that I rarely shy away from gore. I can almost say I am mostly apathetic.
I certainly don't see myself as a proponent to war , but also have not defined myself as anti war. It seemed a necessary evil in shaping the modern world as it is today.
This book was different. This book enrages. This book chases apathy away. It highlights the cost, and often futility, of war.
"Guys have always been fighting for liberty. America fought a war for liberty in 1776. Lots of guys died. And in the end does America have any more liberty than Canada or Australia who didn't fight at all? Maybe so I'm not arguing I'm just asking. Can you look at a guy and say he's an American who fought for his liberty and anybody can see he's a very different guy from a Canadian who didn't?"
The book is set during WWI, printed at the eve of WWII. It's scathingly anti war. But it's also raw in its exploration on what happens to the human mind when nothing else is left.
It is written in the first person by a very wounded soldier. "A side of beef with a brain" as he thinks of himself. He has no limbs to speak of, or a face left. His voiceless thoughts, sometimes turning preachy, mixed with his memories draw us into his mind.
What surprised me was the shift midway through where he fights to live. I'd think all he'd want is to die. But he fights. Fights to improve the conditions of his mind.
Here's an excerpt before that shift:
"Four maybe five million killed and none of them wanting to die while hundreds maybe thousands were left crazy or blind or crippled and couldn't die no matter how hard they tried."
It's a memorable book. Highly recommended.
What a powerful, mind blowing book.
This. This book should be required reading.
I like to think of myself as apolitical. The country has been running till now, and will continue run without my opinions or input, and despite its sacredness, without my vote.
While finding wars terrible, I've read and watched about so much bloodshed, that I rarely shy away from gore. I can almost say I am mostly apathetic.
I certainly don't see myself as a proponent to war , but also have not defined myself as anti war. It seemed a necessary evil in shaping the modern world as it is today.
This book was different. This book enrages. This book chases apathy away. It highlights the cost, and often futility, of war.
"Guys have always been fighting for liberty. America fought a war for liberty in 1776. Lots of guys died. And in the end does America have any more liberty than Canada or Australia who didn't fight at all? Maybe so I'm not arguing I'm just asking. Can you look at a guy and say he's an American who fought for his liberty and anybody can see he's a very different guy from a Canadian who didn't?"
The book is set during WWI, printed at the eve of WWII. It's scathingly anti war. But it's also raw in its exploration on what happens to the human mind when nothing else is left.
It is written in the first person by a very wounded soldier. "A side of beef with a brain" as he thinks of himself. He has no limbs to speak of, or a face left. His voiceless thoughts, sometimes turning preachy, mixed with his memories draw us into his mind.
What surprised me was the shift midway through where he fights to live. I'd think all he'd want is to die. But he fights. Fights to improve the conditions of his mind.
Here's an excerpt before that shift:
"Four maybe five million killed and none of them wanting to die while hundreds maybe thousands were left crazy or blind or crippled and couldn't die no matter how hard they tried."
It's a memorable book. Highly recommended.
challenging
dark
emotional
I think everyone should read this book at least once. It's horrifying, which is needed in a culture that romanticizes war.
This book was hard for me to read again after 16 years. It’s not necessarily a pleasant book. It’s hard to read at times. But when you look at it as a piece of anti-war rhetoric, it’s completely interesting. I understand the purpose of why Trumbo wrote it and can appreciate it for that. It’s still not a favorite book and I wouldn’t like to read it for pleasure, but it was an interesting text to teach that challenges the notion of going to war without quite understanding why we’re there in the first place. It’s a good book to read in time of war in how war actually affects the people who fight in it.
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No