Johnny Got His Gun

Rating:
Summary: Great WWI fiction, but overzealous ending.
Review: This book is some very good WWI fiction. I suggest that anyone who reads this and likes it should read All Quiet on the Western Front. The stories from the front are very vivid, real, and shocking. However, the only thing I did not like was the very end when he started getting self-righteous and preachy. At this point I remembered that Trumbo had never been a soldier and let alone fought in a war. Soldiers do not think like that, I know because I was in the Army. Any of the soldiers I met who were intelligent and unwounded matured after a while and realized that they did not want to fight in a war for any government or politician. A wounded soldier in that state would never feel the way he did toward the end of the book after dealing with everything he had to with that level of cynicism. After having been in, I just couldn't find the attitude believable

Rating:
Summary: A book that has an almost as interesting history as story
Review: This is my favorite (anti)war novel, The story is the case of a young man drafted into World War I. The story is graphically descriptive about amputations, the killing of fellow and enemy soldiers, and puts the reader in a state of "Being there." The story has a history of being one of the most controversial books of the 20th century. After being put on McCarthy's Blacklist, and labeled Unamerican, the story is still one of the most important(in my opinion) books of this century. It shows the guts behind the glory, and puts an unforgettable mark on the readers mind.

Rating:
Summary: A book you'll never forget!
Review: After reading hundreds of books, this one always comes to mind when thinking of great books to recommend. A powerful anti-war message is delivered, but this should not preclude any reader from sharing the emotional struggle the young soldier experiences after becoming limbless as a result of the war. A haunting read that is sure to stay with anyone

Rating:
Summary: A must to read no matter what side of the fence you're on.
Review: I've just finished reading 'Johnny Got His Gun', and I'm ready to read it again. Reading this book is hopping on a continuous spiralling tug-of-war between hope and despair, states of comatose and states of nostalgia. A militant march through one man's stolen freedom. Dalton Trumbo exposes not only his tragic hero to the struggles of accepting truth, but also to anyone who reads this masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting perspective of war.
Review: This book came into my life at an important time. That was 25 years ago. I would like to reread it. At that time I was crippled and not expected to live. This book gave me hope

Rating:
Summary: Anti-war novel
Review: "Johnny Got His Gun" is the most powerful piece of writing I've read. It is a story of a young American terribly maimed in WWI. He survives armless, legless, and faceless, but with his mind intact, it is an immediate bestseller. By using powerful words, Trumbo leads the readers through a flood of intense emotions that are unforgettable. Imagine that you are without your five senses and no longer mobile. That means no walking or talking, no touch, sight or smell, no face to show expression, only the loneliness of your own thoughts. How can you survive or survive or struggle through that horrible time? With very strong and powerful words, Trumbo brought the main character, Joe, to the time of living again. After waking up from a long sleep, Joe starts to realize that he is still alive and still has his mind that can be used for something more meaningful, instead of lying there like a death body. He learns how to keep track of the time by counting the nurse'visits. He also learns how to tell whether it is night or daytime by feeling the heat absorbed by his body. He uses vibrations from the nurse's footsteps to measure the dimension of his room, and the number of people come in. He also begins to communicate with people outside the world by using the Morse Code.He taps his head against the pillow many times, trying to say the word S.O.S-Help- even though he knows that it would be a very small chance for people to recognize his message. However, his life changes when he receives a new nurse. Being patient, the nurse tries to talk to him by drawing letters on his chest.The first word he gets from her is "Merry Christmas" This nurse also brings more people to come see him. There is no word to describe or imagine how happy he is. "He thought of himself with a kind of hysterical happiness four years maybe five years maybe six years he didn't know how many years but he has been through all of them." But when they ask him "What do you want?", for a moment he is in the shock of disappointed at discovering it is not the person he has been waiting for. Trumbo uses very emotional words to describe how disappointed he is. "They should know what he wanted and they should know they couldn't give it to him. He wanted the things they took for granted the things nobody could ever give him. He wanted eyes to see with.....He wanted a nose so that he could smell rain.....He wanted a mouth so that he could eat and talk and laugh and taste and kiss.....He wanted arms and legs so he could work and walk.....but that was it, and he had done it. He had broken through, and they had refused him by saying "What you want is against regulation."" He sacrificed all his life for war and now that was all he got, living lonely in a dark silent world with a maimed body, having no feeling of life. "Johnny Got His Gun" remains the most revolutionary, searing document against war and justice. With the most beautiful words, Trumbo creates a terrifying book, an extraordinary emotional intensity that can never be forgotten by anyone who reads it.

Rating:
Summary: a must read for humanity
Review:

An amazing book! So unexpected and so moving.
This book takes you to the world of Joe Bonham after his getting his gun to fight in the world war I.

Trapped in his nightmarishly destroyed body by war, Joe lives. In a loneliest world no one could imagine its existence until we listen to him. The author describs the world so vividly and attentively.

Any human being with a right mind wouldn't be able to support war after reading his story. I wonder how many Johnnys have been there and out there now.

Who are the winner of a war by the way?
The ones want to create war.
And it is Joe who pays the price.


Rating:
Summary: Should be read by all the warmongers out there!
Review: This is among the oldest and saddest stories of all mankind's blunders. Exactly, what can modern (and ancient) weaponry do to one man, and one man's body? You can learn by reading this, the story of a survivor, who has only his brain left after his participation in the "Great War". Slowly, this person realizes his predicament. There were nearly 10 million dead from this abomination of a war, but this soldier was among the 20 million injured. Must reading for high school youth, but certainly not on the recommended reading list of any national military force. Read it and weep!

Rating:
Summary: One soldier's struggle
Review: "Johnny Got His Gun," by Dalton Trumbo, is a powerful novel. The Bantam paperback includes a fascinating introduction by Trumbo, written in 1959 with a 1970 addendum. The intro notes that the novel itself was written in 1938 and published just after the start of World War II. An "About the Author" page at the book's beginning notes that the Colorado-born Trumbo was one of the screenwriters blacklisted during the McCarthy era.

"Johnny" tells the story of Joe Bonham, an American soldier who is horrifically wounded and disabled in World War I. The book is told from Joe's perspective as he struggles to understand and cope with his situation. His mind wanders back and forth between his past, including his war experiences, and his immediate condition. Thus we get a non-chronological but full picture of his complete life so far.

Dalton's prose style in this book made a strong impact on me. At times he seems to be assaulting the reader without mercy as he shows us the horror of war and its terrible human cost. But the book also includes passages of hope, triumph, and heartbreaking beauty. Joe is an unforgettable character, and this truly disturbing book remains a profoundly relevant work of American fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Johnny Got His Gun
Review: I remember Johnny Got His Gun from the first time I read it in 1970.The tragedy of war was real then and it's real again today. I was struck recently by news articles describing the injuries and survivors of this second investment by the US in blood for oil. Of the 10,000 and more US military casulties from Iraq--the coincidence of body armor and an improved medical response is giving us a new wave of victims and personal heros like the one Dalton Trumbo writes about. It's worth reading this book. Read it again. Let's agree with Trumbo, "no to the warmongers."