Johnny

Johnny Got His Gun

$19.95
(4.91) 4.91 stars out of 11 reviews 11 reviews
$19.95
$19.95
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Johnny Got His Gun

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4.91 out of 5stars
(11 reviews)
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Most helpful positive review

5.00 out of 5 stars review
Verified Purchaser
08/27/2013
Having watched first h...
Having watched first hand as my brother tried to recover his life after serving in Vietnam, this book solidified my opinions towards using men simply as fodder for cannons. This book still haunts me today.
Elpaca

Most helpful negative review

4.00 out of 5 stars review
Verified Purchaser
06/28/2007
This is a heavy anti-w...
This is a heavy anti-war novel written through the mind of a man who lost both legs, both arms, the ability to see or speak because he was injured during a war. This book speaks volumes about war and it is one of the popular books during the Vietnam-era and is definitely relevant now. It is not a long read, nor is it too difficult to understand. I highly recommend it.
Angelic55blonde
  • 5.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    05/06/2020
    This book is spectacular. Not once did I pick up the book and put it down without crying in between. This should be required reading for anyone considering joining the military: if it doesn't happen to you, you might make it happen for someone else. War is unimaginable hell.
    magonistarevolt
  • 5.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    12/04/2017
    A sad, poignant anti-w...
    A sad, poignant anti-war novel like no other, it is also one of the most powerful. The movie is pretty good too. Responsible for getting Dalton Trumbo put on the black list during the McCarthy era. This is a book to end all books about the horror of war. Read it at your peril - it might just make you into a pacifist.
    dbsovereign
  • 5.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    08/15/2016
    I agree with Lisa B. I...
    I agree with Lisa B. I read this book 31 yrs ago and it still haunts me.This book makes you think and re-evaluate your own thoughts and opinions. You may or may not change those opinions but this book will touch you.I do feel this is a must read for all teens.
    LauGal
  • 5.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    11/23/2015
    This is one of the mos...
    This is one of the most powerful books I have read in a long time. It is the ultimate in indictment of war as it affects the common draftee. Having just finished the audio version of Trumbo by Bruce Cook, I decided that Johnny was a book I could not and should not miss. Well written, it deals with one of the most horrible aspects of war that you can possibly imagine. To say that I enjoyed it is not accurate in the least. This is not a book to be enjoyed. But it is a story that needs to be told over and over again and to anyone and everyone who will listen or read. It is horrifying and touching and nostalgic and claustrophobic and sad beyond measure and enraging. And it is a timeless message.
    enemyanniemae
  • 5.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    08/10/2015
    This was a very good b...
    This was a very good book. A lot of it was very painful to read. I loved Johnny's reflections on war and the things soldiers are asked to die for in war. I really liked the idea of how you can never ask a dead soldier if it was worth dying for. It's hard to say much about the book, but I would definitely recommend it to everyone. It's a quick read.
    klburnside
  • 5.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    11/17/2013
    Now I lay me down to ...
    "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." Wow, what can I say about this book? Thought provoking? Yep. Harrowing? Yep. Disturbing? Yep. Intriguing? Oh yeah and then some. This book features a young man Joe Bonham, conscripted to fight in the trenches of WWI only to be horrifically injured in a shell blast. Joe wakes up initially to find that he is deaf but then realises that his injuries stretch much farther than that as it turns out that he has lost all his senses bar one, thought, so he finds himself trapped with only his thoughts and memories for company. Now this book is seen as anti-war and is certainly that with tales of conscripts sent to fight others' battles but this book is more than that, it is also about being part of a larger humanity and what happens to us if we are cut off from it. A desperation to belong. Many people will argue that this book is now out-dated and as most countries no longer have conscription they are right to a certain point but the fact is even today whilst most armies are made up of volunteers and professionals, wars are still fought by the little people not by the elite. What has changed is that modern warfare means that weapons are able to be fired at vast distances at largely unseen enemies but the fact remains that there is still someone on the receiving end of them likely to be killed, injured or their lives irrevocably changed forever usually detrimentally. The fact is that medical advances means that more and more people are surviving and living with horrific injuries than ever before as can be witnessed whenever we put on our TVs. In that way this book is stiil as relevant now as when it was first published,in 1939. This book also challenges many of the norms we ascribe to in a so called civilised society that are too complex to go into in any great detail. However, there are also some very subtle touches of comedy which periodically lift the gloom An interesting thing to note, and I feel that this is a touch of genius by Trumbo, is that throughout the book there is no punctuation other than full stops. This means that the book reads as a single stream of thought. Now this was not at first initially obvious to me but as I got further and further into the book this struck me as a brilliant ploy. Go out and read this book. Whether you enjoy or hate it I almost guarantee that it will at least get you thinking about just what it means to be 'human'.
    PilgrimJess
  • 5.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    10/02/2013
    Although the time in t...
    Although the time in the novel is 1918, it could have been happening anywhere, anytime. It is truly tragic and honest and open and curious and brave, and very very sad, of course. We people do strange things, and one of the strangest and the most horrible ones are the wars, which are, literally, as necessary as a hole in one's head. This book is an outcry of pain and suffering, and the fact that the character cannot even perform this outcry mirrors the terrible logic of the war. His helplessness, and his lost future are caused by things and people he has nothng to do with and the realisation of this non-sense is almost even more painful than suffering caused by his actual wounds. As so often, I would suggest this book to be read at schools, as a part of ethics or similar classes.
    flydodofly
  • 5.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    08/27/2013
    Having watched first h...
    Having watched first hand as my brother tried to recover his life after serving in Vietnam, this book solidified my opinions towards using men simply as fodder for cannons. This book still haunts me today.
    Elpaca
  • 5.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    03/30/2013
    Johnny prese il fucile...
    Johnny prese il fucile e andò in guerra, quale poco importa, Johnny tornò dalla guerra, ma il suo corpo no.Il romanzo è un lungo monologo diviso in due sezioni: i morti e i vivi. Durante il monologo si assiste all'acquisizione di consapevolezza dello stato da parte di Johnny che lentamente si rende conto di non avere più braccia e gambe e di aver perso tutti i sensi che lo collegano con l'esterno.Nel corso del romanzo, passando dai morti ai vivi, Johnny riprende lentamente contatto con l'esterno e ritornando quindi man mano alla vita.E' un romanzo molto incisivo, sia per i contenuti drammatici che per lo stile con cui li trasmette al lettore; il pensiero di Johnny scorre con pochissima punteggiatura e molte ripetizioni, accentuando l'angosciante desiderio di comunicazione del protagonista.Non è una lettura semplice, ma è una lettura da fare.---Johnny got his gun and went to war, it does not matter which one, Johnny came back but without his body.The novel is a monologue divided in two parts: the death and the living ones. During the monologue Johnny increases his consciousness about his status; slowly he understands that he does not have any more arms or legs and to have lost all of his senses and the connections with the outer world.During the novel, going from the death to the living, Johnny regains contact with the outer world and comes back to the living ones.The novel is keen, both for its dramatic contents both for the narrative style almost without punctuation and with lots of words repetition, stressing the protagonist desire for communication with other human beings.It is not a easy read, but it is a must read one.
    Saretta.L
  • 5.00 out of 5 stars review
    Verified Purchaser
    06/03/2012
    I had not gotten aroun...
    I had not gotten around to reading this classic. i knew it would be powerful and intense and avoided it for lighter reads. Finally read the Kindle version and it had a profound effect on me. Beautifully written with a feel of Steinbeck. Excellent imagery and character development. Compelling pace.
    sggottlieb
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