Johnny Got His Gun is a haunting anti-war story about a young American soldier, Joe Bonham, wounded beyond recognition in World War I. Unable to communicate, Joe is left trapped inside his own body, cut off from the world but painfully aware of his situation.
He reflects deeply about war, life, and human dignity. Dalton Trumbo explores the senseless brutality of war and how it robs individuals of their humanity.
Joe's isolation and despair make this novel an intense and heartbreaking read—similar in emotional weight to Remarque's story of disillusionment and lost innocence.
The Things They Carried weaves together interconnected short stories centered on a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War. O'Brien skillfully blends fact and fiction to confront the reader with questions about memory, trauma, and truth.
The young soldiers struggle to find meaning amid confusion and violence, and their stories highlight the heavy psychological tab of warfare.
O'Brien's novel parallels Remarque's themes of camaraderie, loss, and the devastating emotional cost borne by soldiers forced to cope with terrible realities, long after the fighting stops.
Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 satirizes the absurdity and chaos of World War II. At its heart stands Yossarian, an American pilot desperately trying to survive amid confusing, bureaucratic insanity.
Heller brilliantly captures the contradictions inherent in war, notably the novel's central idea—Catch-22 itself—which leaves soldiers trapped in a cruel and illogical loop. The dark humor underscores serious commentary about the madness and futility soldiers face.
Like Remarque's classic, Catch-22 effectively critiques nationalism and questions blind loyalty in a tragically comic and memorable fashion.
Centered around the firebombing of Dresden during World War II, Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five mixes powerful anti-war sentiments with dark, biting humor and elements of science fiction.
The novel follows Billy Pilgrim, a soldier unstuck in time, who experiences past, present, and future simultaneously. Vonnegut portrays warfare as brutal, tragic, and utterly senseless, questioning whether anything learned from the horrors can prevent future violence.
This stance mirrors Remarque's exploration of soldiers losing their humanity when confronted with war's brutal reality.
In Regeneration, Pat Barker introduces readers to World War I soldiers hospitalized for shell shock. Poet-soldiers such as Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen confront mental trauma with help from psychiatrist Dr. Rivers.
Barker presents the psychological wounds inflicted by trench warfare vividly. With a quiet intensity and emotional insight, this novel focuses clearly on how war injures the mind as severely as the body.
Barker's exploration of soldiers' psychological distress and moral doubt resonates closely with the inner conflicts present in Remarque's work.
Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong immerses readers deeply in the trenches of World War I. The experiences of Stephen Wraysford, an English soldier, form the heart of this gripping, realistic account.
Faulks combines vividly detailed battle scenes with a love story subtly intertwined through the narrative. Themes of trauma, sacrifice, and humanity emerge as Stephen grapples with the atrocities he witnesses.
Like Remarque, Faulks vividly draws out the harsh realities and lasting psychological scars suffered by soldiers who endure war up close.
Hemingway's landmark novel A Farewell to Arms is a stark yet moving tale set against the Italian front of World War I. Frederic Henry, an American ambulance driver, falls for Catherine, a nurse, amid swirling violence and deep disillusionment.
As the war drags on, illusions about heroism and honor fade, revealing war as meaningless and cruel.
Hemingway's writing—concise yet profoundly affecting—captures soldiers' despair in ways reminiscent of Remarque's honest portrayal of camaraderie, humanity, and their stark loss amid war.
Set in the Pacific theater during World War II, Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead places readers directly amidst grueling island battles and the minds of young soldiers.
Mailer's grim realism examines how the soldiers' battles are just as much internal and psychological as they are physical.
The gritty authenticity of combat, fear, and hunger lays bare war's brutality, alongside penetrating character studies of infantrymen tested to their limits.
Similar to Remarque, Mailer explores how war strips men bare, exposing universal truths about courage, cowardice, and humanity.
Karl Marlantes' intense, authentic portrayal of war unfolds in Matterhorn, a deep dive into the harrowing experiences of a Marine company in the Vietnam jungle.
Marlantes captures the exhausting physical burdens soldiers faced, along with complex human relationships built during extreme hardship.
The author doesn't shy away from grim realities, clearly illustrating human lives spent and broken through pointless battles and misguided politics.
Much as Remarque showed the camaraderie born in trenches, Marlantes captures the emotional truth behind soldiers banded together in impossible circumstances.
Kevin Powers, himself an Iraq War veteran, wrote The Yellow Birds from authentic emotional territory. The novel candidly captures the guilt, trauma, and unbearable weight carried home by survivors.
Through vividly powerful language, Powers explores how deep psychological wounds linger. The story follows John Bartle, a soldier haunted after returning home, while grappling with painful memories of war crimes and lost comrades.
Powers offers a sobering look at the lasting damage war inflicts—faithful to the emotional honesty employed by Remarque decades earlier.
In Company K, William March presents fragmented vignettes drawn from vivid first-hand wartime experience during World War I. The novel's mosaic approach offers perspectives from numerous members of a military unit, vividly capturing their stark, sometimes shocking experiences.
March explores individual soldiers' despair, fear, rage, and camaraderie with straightforward honesty. Reminiscent of Remarque’s tone, he provides no illusions or idealizations, instead emphasizing war's relentless emotional and physical toll on ordinary soldiers.
Generals Die in Bed vividly portrays World War I trench warfare from a Canadian perspective. Harrison draws from personal experience to convey the unrelenting horror of military combat—the mud, cold, lice, and disease that defined life in trenches.
The novel offers a blunt perspective, with no polish or romanticism to soften reality. Harrison directly confronts readers with the deep psychological toll war exacted on soldiers.
Much as Remarque did, Harrison critiques officers and higher leadership whose decisions lead others into suffering and death.
Three Soldiers follows American servicemen changed forever by World War I. Dos Passos portrays disillusionment and cynicism experienced by soldiers forced by outdated military traditions into senseless conflict.
These characters begin the war inspired by patriotism, only to find disillusionment, exploitation, and emotional exhaustion.
Dos Passos critiques authority, nationalism, and idealism with powerful realism similar to the disillusioned tone and anti-war stance conveyed clearly by Remarque.
Henri Barbusse's influential novel Under Fire (Le Feu) brings readers directly into the grim reality of trench warfare from a French perspective. Drawing heavily on personal experience, Barbusse portrays daily horrors soldiers endured, with remarkable honesty and emotional strength.
Likely one of the earliest gritty realist portrayals of war, the novel had significant influence on soldier narratives that followed.
Written well before Remarque's classic, Barbusse similarly captures in detail war's absurdity, brutality, and psychological damage that permanently marks soldiers.
Offering an insightful contrast, Ernst Jünger's Storm of Steel recounts World War I experiences from a German soldier's perspective.
Unlike many other anti-war novels, Jünger focuses more matter-of-factly—sometimes even glorifying combat—through precise, vividly rendered details. Jünger's embrace of war experience challenges readers by depicting courage, duty, and action alongside horror and tragedy.
The straightforward narrative has made it controversial but underscores a unique viewpoint when compared to Remarque's critical anti-war approach.