Paths of Glory by Humphrey CobbMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Author Humphrey Cobb knew his subject matter. Wounded while serving with the Canadian Army in World War I, his tale of a vain general, a failed attack, an unjust trial and the fate of three soldiers was compelling enough for filmmaker Stanley Kubrick to adapt into his classic film Paths of Glory.
Fast and compelling, Cobb's book captures the brutality and carnage of the Western Front as well as the army's indifference and passive obedience that allows the perpetuation of a cruel injustice.
Under three hundred pages, the book is told from multiple points of view, with grim details of trench warfare and the doomed outlook of the soldiers underscoring a dark tale of military injustice and the reduction of men to chips in a vast rigged game.
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