
I have read All Quiet on the Western Front every year for the past 12 years--and each year it gets better and better. I remember when I first read the last line of chapter one when Kropp says, "Youth? That is long ago. We are old folk," I simply thought, yeah, probably true; however, now when I read it, it is more like a silent chill that makes me want to cry because, while this is only a book and a fictional story, it "IS" the story of our world since history started to record itself, and the incessant and draining wars instigated and championed by misguided rulers and sycophants. A good writer makes real what we already know--but probably ignore.