So it was with strong doubts in my mind that I splashed out £6 on a remaindered copy of Erich Maria Remarque's Im Westen Nicht Neues, better known in English-speaking lands as All Quiet On The Western Front.
I mention the German title because an accurate translation would be Nothing New In The West, or, as translator Brian Murdoch freely renders it, Nothing New On The Western Front.
Be that as it may, Ramarque was a WW1 veteran who used his experiences in basic training, on the front line and as a hospital orderly to write a gripping and entertaining work of fiction.
In some ways, and this will probably be regarded as heresy by literary cognoscenti, the book reminded of Danish writer Sven Hassel's Legion Of The Damned Series (and, in a lesser way, Stephen Crane's The Red Badge Of Courage).
In my defence, I was in my mid-teens when I started reading Hassel, and my memory of his qualities may be faulty.
But I doubt if many readers of Remarque would query my praise of his work.
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| A remarkable read |
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