All Quiet on the Western Front has a surprise ending that one might take to be a rug jerk, but really is not. I won't tell you because I don't want to ruin the experience of reading it for yourself, but I will tell you that I read it thirty-six years ago, yet it still fills me with despair even to mention it now.

Not despair at having read a poorly written book: it is one of the best books I have read. There have been I think two movies made of it. I've seen the modern one and feel it is excellent too.

No, despair at the fact that there ever has been such an evil thing as war, and that we are still faced with it. There are very few pages in the book that fail to express war's evil nature, yet it is the surprise ending on the book's last page that, in my view, espresses that fact most forcefully and eloquently.

It is not a rug jerk for other reasons, in that it is consistent with the logic of the rest of the book. It could have ended without this final twist and possibly remained a best seller, but not as memorable a one.

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