Narrated by Frank Muller
This is a story about the horrors of war, plain and simple. It is gruesome and graphic with a purpose and a relevancy. One of the most striking things about the voice the author chose and Frank Muller performed with excellence is the detached indifference.
At first I was disappointed by the passionless reading until I got into the story and realized that was part of the story. Paul, the main character and story-teller has been so affected by the Great War that he lies about the situation of his friends death to that friends mother and has no problem with it. At another point he reflexively stabs a man repeatedly with a small dagger and is obsessively distraught by it for hours while he sits in a bomb crater as the man dies slowly, unable to help him or end his misery.
I was not the biggest fan of the writing style (or maybe it was the translation, done by A. W. Wheen) although it was effective being in first person journal style. To me it was a lot of pronouns and a little bit- jerky? disjointed? I'm not sure and thinking about it now it may have been intentional.
Anyway, This book is non-the-less very well written to the effect of being thought provoking.
And as the book was written-
so it was read.
I recommend this one for the vivid view of war it brings, to an American, from another side.
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by Stephen Ambrose
by John Steinbeck
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