I'm with issybird on the ending. I thought it fell utterly flat. However, up until that point I enjoyed it.
What I found quite interesting was that it was very familiar to me. I've neither read the book nor seen the film before, but so much of this I felt like I had read (or seen) before. It might be a testament to how influential the book was on other works - or that it was remarkably accurate and therefore naturally echoes throughout other similar pieces.
It might be a bit contentious, but one of the things that I liked about the book wasn't necessarily the "anti-war" sentiment, but the demonstration that in this war, a lot of the bullshit was actually stripped away. That civilisation, feelings of superiority, justifications are the luxuries of those who don't experience the reality of the life-and-death struggles of the front line. There is not only a feeling of comradeship with the enemy, but a recognition of the more primal aspects - that man is just another animal.
Sometimes, in my own contemplations, I wonder which aspect is better. Once you've dealt with the animal too long, it's probably difficult to exist in civilisation and the author brings this up a great many times, but from a very specific point of view (that of a certain age). But it is as a civilisation that we can justify war. In the book it is only too obvious that as the individual devolves towards the animal, the killing is accepted, but not really understood.
I did find the book a little on the heavy-handed side. It certainly gave the message power. But sometimes I felt that it became a little repetitive - especially the author's contemplations. They seemed to be like a chorus for this ballad and although that's not necessarily a bad thing, it still felt a little overplayed to me.
Anyway, I'm glad that I finally had a chance to read this book. In high school, several classes studied this book, but I was not in one of them. I can't remember what we studied instead - but in that year level I remember the books to have been particularly good -
To Kill a Mockingbird,
Lord of the Flies - so I didn't exactly miss out. I actually managed to get a copy of the book just last week from a friend who had two copies, along with several Steinbacks and a Hemmingway - Score!!
