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I also really liked it. Although it was fiction, it seemed to be a realistic portrayal of war to me. Not that I've ever fought in a war, but I have been close to a couple of men who did, and the craziness of the day-to-day existence and fighting seemed to match their stories (including one similar story of a friend who fought in the Battle of the Bulge and got separated from his command, and was eventually picked up and carried back like a king on top of a mattress).
The realism of emotions also struck me, like with his mother and his comrades. Real, and almost too wise and too admitting of human weakness to be done by someone so young. But I think this was the best way to tell the story, related as the incremental learnings and adaptations of a young man in war.
Some very minor things that I noticed (with page numbers of the Little Brown hardcover edition):
P. 72 When talking about why he might stay in the army and giving its good points:
"In the army in peace-time you've nothing to trouble about," he [Haie] goes on, "your food's found every day, or else you kick up a row; you've a bed, every week clean under-wear like a perfect gent, you to your non-com.'s duty, you have a good suit of clothes; in the evening you're a free man and go off to the pub."
If that means one pair per week of clean underwear, and it's worth listing as a benefit? Yikes, we've got it good!
I recall this being a classic when I was in the lower grades of school, yet with subjects that today might be cause for censorship (p. 153 fart, p. 174 masturbation) in some places in the U.S. (Texas, Arizona, ...). I hope I'm wrong on that.
Thanks, Book Club voters. I never would have thought to read this book.
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