Rating: 
Summary: Powerful
Review: An absolute classic and must-read. Trumbo's imagery is frightening, as is the painful stream-of-conciousness format that forces you into the protagonist's head. It's a surrealistic situation that becomes eerily possible when one is caught up in the book.While a powerful antiwar, antipropiganda novel, many don't realize it's more complex then that. It's almost a pro-war novel, too. The main character questions principles such as freedom, liberty; many of the things that some say separate us from animals. One is not forced to agree with the ideas that the protagonist has, and in the end, the question of pro or anti war is not resolved, but left up to the readers' interpretation.
(Trumbo himself is not actually anti-war, suprisingly.) Powerful, moving, thought-provoking and utterly painful. A remarkable thing to reflect on when deciding what is worth going to war for.
Rating: 
Summary: Tedious in many sections; too propagandistic
Review: This book chronicles the intermittent dreams and growing consciousness of a young man who wakes up in an army hospital and gradually becomes conscious enough to realize that he's been ripped apart by a bomb: a quadripelegic who has also lost his sight and hearing. The weight of the story is his recollections of his very idyllic life before he went to war. A popular review of this book remarks that it was kept obscure for several years because it was introduced just as the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. Obviously, in an era when the Poles had to fight to protect themselves from the open pillaging of their country (which the Nazis carried out in short order), this book's flaws would become too apparent. Like any argument that rests upon a rare extremity of evidence, JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN fails in its logic. In Poland 1939, men and women who did not go to war were reduced to smoking hulks of flesh simply because they were Jewish or epileptic or dissidents. So Trumbo's argument falls flat. Men who take up the gun may suffer catastrophically, but men who do not take up the gun may also suffer catastrophically. Another flaw is that a lot of Trumbo's argument is not really against WAR, but is against WARTIME PROPAGANDA. He swaps the two concepts and really batters the straw man of propaganda without ever discussing war itself. At the end of the book, the reader still has a question unanswered: Is it ever right for a person to pick up a gun and fire at an advancing aggressor? Because that's what war is. And that question is never answered. In the end, I think the story is tedious, predictable, skewed, and too overtly propagandistic.
Rating:
Summary: The best case against war - fiction or not
Review: This book was released at a most unfortunate time: Two weeks after the Nazis invaded Poland. Trumbo's message was powerful and poignant yet drowned out by the beat of war drums. Though written in 1939, you can see some things just don't change (especially with the current atrocity in Iraq). "You can always hear the people who are willing to sacrifice somebody else's life. They're plenty loud and they talk all the time. You can find them in churches and schools and newspapers and legislatures and congress. That's their business. They sound wonderful. Death before dishonor. This ground sanctified by blood. These men who died so gloriously. They shall not have died in vain. Our noble dead. "Hmmmm. "What do the dead say?" Trumbo very clearly gets his anti-war message across in the form of Joe Bonham, a 20 year-old who joined the Army to fight in "The Great War." He was left a piece of meat after being hit by a shell in France (after waking from his coma, he struggles to determine if he's in England or France, neither location giving him comfort). He's left without legs, arms, deaf, blind, a mask covering the spot where his face used to be. Yet Joe lives, and the only thing he's got left is his mind. Instead of having legs to run away from it all, arms to kill himself with, a voice to keep himself company, eyes to look around with, he goes through everything he's ever learned in his mind to keep himself occupied. Sometimes, going over so much and asking so many questions about everything for so long makes Joe second-guess his sanity. "He thought here you are Joe Bonham lying like a side of beef all the rest of your life and for what? Somebody tapped you on the shoulder and said come along son we're going to war. So you went. But why? In any other deal like buying a car or running an errand you had the right to say what's there in it for me?" "And what's more mister are you as much interested in this liberty as you want me to be?" (Translation: You're so gung ho about this war, YOU go out and fight it!) With the current atrocity happening in Iraq, I couldn't help but think how some things never change when reading Chapter X. It's the same old tired lines. You would think that, with time, the pro-war folks would have thought of something new. This book is heavy reading and is definitely worth it. It WILL stay with you for a while after you've read it and much of what Dalton Trumbo wrote all those years ago still rings true. "And now I lay me down to sleep my bomb-proof cellar's good and deep but if I'm killed before I wake remember god it's for your sake. Amen."
Rating:
Summary: Unique and Thought-Provoking Work
Review: A pointed anti-war novel, "Johnny Got His Gun" reduces war to its basic principle: one man. After sustaining massive injuries in battle, a WWI soldier's life is changed forever. I can see why the book was all but blacklisted decades ago and why it became popular again during Korea and Vietnam. Be aware of several 5-10 rantings about just how wrong and pointless war is. Even if you don't agree with his (and the author's) findings, your opinion on the subject should change forever. It makes you think, brings out emotions, and it challenges well-entrenched beliefs--and that's a good thing.
Rating:
Summary: Johnny Got His Gun is among the best books I have ever read.
Review: Dalton Trumbo is truly a gifted author. His book has given me an entirely different perspective on how I look at war and everything that comes with it. It has made me take a second look at issues in society today. The speeches he includes in this novel are inspirational and uplifting. I was in awe after reading them. It made me ponder why we even bother with war. I definitely recommend this book to anyone and everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Thought- Provoking, But Not Without Its Problems
Review: Trumbo makes some powerful points in this book, and raises some great questions; are those who are killed in war proud to have died for their country? Since the dead don't talk, there is no way of knowing. Through the character of Joe Bonham, he allows us to more closely consider this question. Bonham has lost his capacity to "live" in any real sense of the word, because he has lost his arms, legs, and all of his senses. For all practical purposes, he is a dead man who still has the ability to reflect upon the meaning of war and its futility. His basic point is that he'd rather alive in an "un-free" society than dead. It's an understandable point to make; most people would chose to forfeit some freedoms in order to live. But some of the more complex issues about war are avoided by Trumbo. Throughout history, there are countless of examples of countries believing that laying down their arms would stop the bloodshed, only to find that it was the precursor to mass death. Cambodia in 1975 is but one example of such logic, when the Lon Knol government surrendered to the Khmer Rouge and were massacred. There is also the case of the Japanese invasion of Nanking, when the Japanes Imperial Army promised fair treatment in return for surrender; what they got was a six week reign of terror full of burning, raping, and pillaging. Mr. Trumbo's book is a potent reminder to not wage war recklessly. But it's naive to think you can preserve life through sheer pacifism. A very moving book, although one-sided.
Rating: 
Summary: Lame and flawed and tedious
Review: A popular review of this book remarks that it was kept obscure for several years because it was introduced just as the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. Obviously, in an era when the Poles had to fight to protect themselves from the open pillaging of their country (which the Nazis carried out in short order), this book's flaws would become too apparent. Like any argument that rests upon a rare extremity of evidence, JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN fails in its logic. It is merely propaganda, because the argument rests entirely on one person who has been turned into a quadrapelegic during the bomb raids of trench warfare. As tragic as the main character is, the book starts out flawed because it shows only one perspective. In 1939, when the Nazis actually were burning down synagogues, raping women, and deporting Polish Jews to Buchenwald and Treblinka, this book could not sell well because the opposite side of the question of the necessity of war had become too urgent. I think Trumbo's book is tedious, predictable, skewed, and too overtly propagandistic. If you want a great anti-war novel, I would urge you to read the classic, RED BADGE OF COURAGE. It's shorter, more terse, has more impact, takes a wider scope, and has better literary quality. Another flaw is that a lot of Trumbo's argument is not really against WAR, but is against WARTIME PROPAGANDA. He swaps the two concepts and really batters the straw man of propaganda without ever discussing war itself. At the end of the book, when even the main character seems to be threatening war to get what he wants, the reader still has a question unanswered: Is it ever right for a person to pick up a gun and fire at an advancing aggressor? Becuase that's what war is. If you argue against the parades and the high talk of dying for honor or for liberty, or handsome uniforms, or ribbons, you are back to propaganda. That's really what Trumbo rails against in his book. But when you talk about the Nazis battering at the gate and having the opportunity to pick up a gun and drive them off, then you're talking about war. Trumbo fails to discuss this idea with any depth. I don't know why this book is considered a classic. If he'd taken half the length to say what it says, it would have said just as much with perhaps more power. But because he over-hammers his point, the reader swims in overt emotional mnaipulation. And the book begns to lose its effectiveness well before the end. There are reasons to reject some wars and refuse to fight. But this book never gets to those reasons. At best, it shows us that it is really stupid to listen to wartime propaganda and sign up to fight just because everybody else is doing it. Granted, that much is true. So I would call it an anti-propaganda book. But did you really need an entire book to tell you not to fall for propaganda?
Rating:
Summary: "ONE"
Review: Well this is very powerful book on war and the suffering effects there after. In your mind your thinking, "How can some one live like that?" It is living life backwards and the sensing of nothingness, pain and horror.....
Rating:
Summary: Thoughts on war
Review: It may seem redundant to add to the other dozens of reviews of Johhny Got His Gun but I just finished reading it and had to add my congratulations for the author's message.
I went to Vietnam much like Johnny: I was patriotic, I thought my training as an anesthetist would help to save lives and I was essentially drafted.
I had worked in civilian hospitals with trauma patients. But nothing prepared me for what I saw in the evac hospital: the suffering and total waste of human life and potential...conexes full of amputated limbs. Since then I've seen the survivors in V.A. hospitals. We have no idea of the numbers of crippled soldiers just from the latest adventure in Iraq.
Where are the Dalton Trumbos for today? Why do we have to learn the same horrible lesson each new generation?
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I ever read.
Review: This ranks up there with "All Quite On The Western Front" as a book that portrays the horrors of war. Yet unlike the "A.Q.O.T.W.F" which portrays the life of a living and healthy ( physically healthy but emotionally and mentally dying ) soldier caught up in the hell of a war that he can see, hear, smell and feel. "Johnny Got His Gun" is a book that show cases the hell that is war in a new and twisted light which is being a victim, a number, a casualty, but not just any casualty ! If you can imagine having your face blown off so you have no eyes to see with, no ears to hear with, no mouth to taste with or breath from and no nose to smell with. Yet it does not stop with this ! You also have no arms since they have been amputated from the shoulder and no legs because they were cut off as well from the hip down. So with this picture you see that a person can be nothing more then a stump, a shell but as you will read in this book, a stump with a brain and a living and working mind that has not been blown off or amputated. If war is hell then being Johnny is being at the center of hell's fury itself yet being a million miles away from the outside living and breathing world. This book is truly a classic which every young man or women in high-school should read, hell even if you're in college or out of college this book is worth reading.
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