God, this book. Totally shattering. I read Johnny Got His Gun recently, decided to pair them up. (This is a second time through All Quiet, as I read it in 10th grade.) Having just put this down, I am so shaken I can't say with much confidence which was more powerful, but right now it feels like All Quiet. They are both horrifying, and they share the key theme of the pointlessness of the whole thing and the asymmetries between those who made the decisions and those who bore the costs. Obviously, Johnny is more interior, while All Quiet layers in the physicality of the violence, the staggering array of ways in which death can come in the trenches. Sickening to imagine that societies that have these books to guide them can still be given to nationalism and war.

Anyway, yeah, there you have it. Read it if you haven't, but be prepared never to feel whole again.