The Searing Portrayal Of War That Has Stunned And Galvanized Generations Of ReadersAn immediate bestseller upon its original publication in 1939, Dalton Trumbo?s stark, profoundly troubling masterpiece about the horrors of World War I brilliantly crystallized the uncompromising brutality of war and became the most influential protest novel of the Vietnam era. Johnny Got His Gun is an undisputed … Gun is an undisputed classic of antiwar literature that?s as timely as ever.
?A terrifying book, of an extraordinary emotional intensity.?–The Washington Post
“Powerful. . . an eye-opener.” –Michael Moore
“Mr. Trumbo sets this story down almost without pause or punctuation and with a fury amounting to eloquence.”–The New York Times
“A book that can never be forgotten by anyone who reads it.”–Saturday Review
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The classic story about the cost of war. You will not forget it after you read it. Although about a veteran of World War I, it can apply to any war. The cost and the waste.
An emotional, intense and terrifying story of a World War 1 veteran.
An anti-war book, and a banned book, written by one of the men who broke the Hollywood blacklist. Reasons enough to read it, even if it wasn’t a great book, which it is.
This book was a gut-punch when I read it at age 17. And it still is. Should be required reading for every high school kid.
It was hard to follow at first, but once you figure out how the writing is different in the present time rather than past, it gets easier.
I first read this book years ago and have reread it many times since. A book that highlights, in brutal truths, the ways people are used and discarded at other’s convenience. The book is divided into halves and while the first half is slower than the second, it builds the world of the protagonist in very vivid ways, painting clear pictures of American life pre-war. The second half is where things change, and no spoilers, is well worth the read. Go into this with an open mind of present day climate as well as knowledge of the country’s political climate from almost a century ago and you will see not much has changed.
For every mother’s son who thinks war is anything but hell…
I’ve seen the movie and read this e-book, and I’d reccomend both. The movie is easier to follow only because the watcher can tell when the main character is awake or asleep dreaming since awake is in black and white and dreaming is in color. In the book it’s not as easy to be able to tell one from the other. But the book is much more fuller in emotion than the movie ever was, you can tell the character is doing everything in his power to find a grip on reality. He just doesn’t know what reality is throughout the whole book. It really makes the reader think what is truly humane in reference to the character’s situation.
I first read this in college and was profoundly affected by it. I decided to re-read it, expecting it to feel maudlin and overdone. It was just as powerful the second time around. Perhaps more so, as the first time I read it, I thought it was talking about Vietnam (as this was during the Vietnam War). Imagine my horror to find out that this was a book about WWI, and written in about 1935. Absolutely timeless.
Gives you a taste of what it was like in Vietnam during the war.
I read this book at the end of the Vietnam War and again the year I was 70. I find it incomprehensible how decade after decade we can destroy our young people and never learn any lessons about striving for peace, saving humanity, treasuries ur youth, controlling our greed, and trying be be what our maker means for us to be.
Nothing could speak louder as to the horrors of war than the broken body of the main character. I read this years ago, but the emptiness and frustration I felt while reading remain. Poignant, maddening, sad beyond measure.
Wow! I couldn’t believe I’d never heard of this book before. I reviewed on GoodReads and said that I thought it should be required reading in High School.
Endless intro by left-wing nut jobs. Main character who lost arms, legs, face, sight, and hearing embodies aggregate carnage of war. He can still think and concludes that honor, patriotism, freedom, and democracy are only words and not worth the the taking of life or maiming people. Classic of anti-war movement propaganda.
Hated this book. Its one of those books you think you’re supposed to read, to be shocked by. I read it. I wasn’t shocked. I’ve read many, much better written books that leave a more haunting image of the horrors of war. It was slow, tedious, and I hate to admit it…..boring.
This gives everyone the opportunity to view what war is really about. A difficult tale to read, should be required reading . I read it in high school and now in my old age. A book you will never forget.
best anti-war story ever