Johnny Got His Gun

Name: Johnny Got His Gun
Brand: Tantor Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: Dalton Trumbo
ISBN: 9781400176557

Author: Dalton Trumbo

Narrator: William Dufris

Unabridged: 7 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/21/2008

Categories: Fiction, Military Fiction

Synopsis

This was no ordinary war. This was a war to make the world safe for democracy. And if democracy was made safe, then nothing else mattered—not the millions of dead bodies, nor the thousands of ruined lives…. This is no ordinary novel. This is a novel that never takes the easy way out: it is shocking, violent, terrifying, horrible, uncompromising, brutal, remorseless, and gruesome...but so is war.

Johnny Got His Gun holds a place as one of the classic antiwar novels. First published in 1939, Dalton Trumbo's story of a young American soldier terribly maimed in World War I—he "survives" armless, legless, and faceless, but with his mind intact—was an immediate bestseller. This fiercely moving novel was a rallying point for many Americans who came of age during World War II, and it became perhaps the most popular novel of protest during the Vietnam era.

About Dalton Trumbo

Dalton Trumbo (1905–1976), a screenwriter and novelist, was among the most prolific and important literary figures of his time. One of the famous Hollywood Ten, he refused to testify about his alleged communist affiliations before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947. Blacklisted from the film industry and charged with contempt of Congress, he served an eleven-month prison sentence. Dalton's screenwriting credits include Kitty Foyle, for which he received an Academy Award nomination; Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo; and Sparticus. His books include Eclipse, The Time of the Toad, The Devil in the Book, and Washington Jitters. Johnny Got His Gun, the most highly acclaimed work of Trumbo's extraordinary career, won a National Book Award (then known as an American Book Sellers Award) in 1939. The idea for the novel came to Trumbo after he learned of a British soldier who was seriously injured during World War I.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Emily May on May 03, 2023

If they talk about dying for principles that are bigger than life you say mister you're a liar. Nothing is bigger than life. There's nothing noble in death. What's noble about lying in the ground and rotting? What's noble about never seeing the sunshine again? A few weeks ago I was in a weird moo......more

Goodreads review by Bill on August 24, 2019

A scathing anti-war novel, in which the main character is one of the profoundly, hopelessly wounded, the human wrecks of war. It is told in the first person, by the voice of a person now voiceless, trapped in his mutilated body, confined to his hospital bed, and--as this person virtually unable to c......more

Goodreads review by Nandakishore on March 08, 2019

I simply have to read this book. It, including its author, has been cussed by Ann Coulter on her latest blog post. That is recommendation enough for me! *** Devastating read! Review coming. *** Detailed Review This must be the most disturbing war novel that I have read – if not the most disturbing novel......more

Goodreads review by Brett on May 02, 2021

I thought this was OK. The setting is an American soldier, Joe Bonham, in a military hospital during WWI. While on the front, an artillery attack blew off his limbs and left him blind, deaf, and mute. This is all experienced through Joe's perspective as he slips in and out of his present-day reality......more