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All Quiet on the Western Front/The Road Back #2
The Road Back
After surviving several horrifying years in the inferno of the Western Front, a young German soldier and his cohorts return home at the end of WW1. Their road back to life in civilian world is made arduous by their bitterness about what they find in post-war society. A captivating story, one of Remarque's best.
352 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1931
About the author
Erich Maria Remarque
194 books5,355 followersExperiences of German-born American writer Erich Maria Remarque (born Erich Paul Remark) in World War I based
All Quiet on the Western Front
(1929), his best known novel.
People most widely read literature of author with pen name of Erich Paul Remark in the twentieth century.
German history of the twentieth century essentially marks biography of Remarque and fundamentally influences his writing: Childhood and youth, the Weimar Republic, and most of all his exile in Switzerland and the United States. The first publication attained worldwide recognition, continuing today.
Examples of his other novels also internationally published are: The Road Back (1931), Three Comrades (1936, 38), Arch of Triumph (1945), The Black Obelisk (1956), and Night in Lisbon (1962).
Remarque's novels have been translated in more than fifty languages; globally the total edition comes up to several million copies.
The complete works of Remarque are both highly interrelated with his Osnabrück background and speaking thematically of a critical examination of German history, whereby the preservation of human dignity and humanity in times of oppression, terror and war always was at the forefront of his literary creation.
AKA:
Έριχ Μαρία Ρεμάρκ (Greek)
Эрих Мария Ремарк (Russian)
People most widely read literature of author with pen name of Erich Paul Remark in the twentieth century.
German history of the twentieth century essentially marks biography of Remarque and fundamentally influences his writing: Childhood and youth, the Weimar Republic, and most of all his exile in Switzerland and the United States. The first publication attained worldwide recognition, continuing today.
Examples of his other novels also internationally published are: The Road Back (1931), Three Comrades (1936, 38), Arch of Triumph (1945), The Black Obelisk (1956), and Night in Lisbon (1962).
Remarque's novels have been translated in more than fifty languages; globally the total edition comes up to several million copies.
The complete works of Remarque are both highly interrelated with his Osnabrück background and speaking thematically of a critical examination of German history, whereby the preservation of human dignity and humanity in times of oppression, terror and war always was at the forefront of his literary creation.
AKA:
Έριχ Μαρία Ρεμάρκ (Greek)
Эрих Мария Ремарк (Russian)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 532 reviews
May 5, 2022
The last combats and skirmishes… Peace is nearing… However death still keeps doing its dire work… And the dread doesn’t let go.
The war is over and the road back home lies ahead… For those who have managed to deceive death and survive.
The war is over but its echo is long and sorrowful: horrendous memories, nightmares, madness, nervous breakdowns, psychological traumas, suicides, alienation…
The gory wave of war retreats and on the shore of peace crippled bodies, crippled minds, crippled souls and ruined fates are left… And generals are already readying new wars…
“Gas shells!” shouts Willy, springing up.
We are all awake now and listening intently.
Wessling points into the air. “There they are! Wild geese!”
Moving darkly against the drab grey of the clouds is a streak, a wedge, its point steering toward the moon. It cuts across its red disc. The black shadows are plainly visible, an angle of many wings, a column of squalling, strange, wild cries, that loses itself in the distance.
“Off they go,” growls Willy. “Damn it all – if only we could pull out like that! Two wings and away.”
The war is over and the road back home lies ahead… For those who have managed to deceive death and survive.
The wide, grey square is much too big for us. Across it sweeps a bleak November wind smelling of decay and death. We are lined up between the canteen and the guard-room, more space we do not require. The wide, empty square about us wakes woeful memories. There, rank on rank, invisible, stand the dead.
The war is over but its echo is long and sorrowful: horrendous memories, nightmares, madness, nervous breakdowns, psychological traumas, suicides, alienation…
The things here are stronger – the things that differentiate us from one another are too powerful. The common interest is no longer decisive. It has broken up already, and given place to the interest of the individual. Now and then something still will shine through from that other time when we all wore the same rig, but already it is diminished and dim. These others here are still our comrades, and yet our comrades no longer – that is what is so sad. All else went west in the war, but comradeship we did believe, in; now only to find that what death could not do, life is achieving – it is driving us asunder.
The gory wave of war retreats and on the shore of peace crippled bodies, crippled minds, crippled souls and ruined fates are left… And generals are already readying new wars…
March 12, 2023
I recently saw the new film version of All Quiet on the Western Front. I personally thought it a disappointing adaptation of the novel, but it did get me interested in reading this book, which is described as a follow-up. I first read AQotWF when I was a teenager and it made a vivid impression on me. There’s some text below I have marked as spoilers, but they are spoilers for AQotWF rather than for this novel. You can uncover the spoilers if you have already read AQotWF.
The novel opens in the last few days of the Great War, and then follows the group of soldiers as they march home, try to pick up their former lives, and reintegrate back into peacetime society. One of the most memorable sections of AQotWF was when Paul went on leave but struggled to relate to the people on the Home Front, and that’s very much the theme of this book. The soldiers have all been indelibly marked by their wartime experiences, which set them apart from others.
“An unbridgeable gulf has opened up between soldiers and those who were not soldiers.”
The ex-soldiers tend to hang around with each other, but even then the close comradeship of frontline soldiers is disrupted by the return of peace. The men return to a Germany in political and economic chaos. Some become involved with the black market and become wealthy whilst others live in dire poverty. They also have to deal with the political divisions of the time.
“Yes, it was all so much easier at the front; just as long as you managed to stay alive, everything was all right.”
For the first half of this book I thought it was heading for a five-star rating. I found the second half slightly less effective. Towards the end I thought some passages were a little overcooked. This was particularly true of a courtroom scene involving one of Ernst’s former comrades.
EMR convincingly conveys the alienation felt by war veterans returning home. Taken as a whole, another very impressive novel.
The novel opens in the last few days of the Great War, and then follows the group of soldiers as they march home, try to pick up their former lives, and reintegrate back into peacetime society. One of the most memorable sections of AQotWF was when Paul went on leave but struggled to relate to the people on the Home Front, and that’s very much the theme of this book. The soldiers have all been indelibly marked by their wartime experiences, which set them apart from others.
“An unbridgeable gulf has opened up between soldiers and those who were not soldiers.”
The ex-soldiers tend to hang around with each other, but even then the close comradeship of frontline soldiers is disrupted by the return of peace. The men return to a Germany in political and economic chaos. Some become involved with the black market and become wealthy whilst others live in dire poverty. They also have to deal with the political divisions of the time.
“Yes, it was all so much easier at the front; just as long as you managed to stay alive, everything was all right.”
For the first half of this book I thought it was heading for a five-star rating. I found the second half slightly less effective. Towards the end I thought some passages were a little overcooked. This was particularly true of a courtroom scene involving one of Ernst’s former comrades.
EMR convincingly conveys the alienation felt by war veterans returning home. Taken as a whole, another very impressive novel.
September 26, 2023
Lost souls
🇩🇪Home from the war to a nation that doesn’t care about the sacrifices, the crippling wounds, the war shock the veterans deal with (what we now call PTSD) ... sound familiar?
🇩🇪Remarque writes eloquently and with a powerful rawness about the end of WW1 and the life (or rather lack of life) he and other German soldiers returned to. Occasionally, he gets preachy in his anger at how veterans were mistreated and ignored by the Fatherland, but overall the book is a strong swift read full of beauty and pain ... characters from All Quiet, like Paul Baumer, are mentioned in it ...
🇩🇪Once again, here is a Remarque tragedy sprinkled with shards of light and hope for humanity. Once again, here is a Remarque war novel that rails against the brutality and wickedness of war from cover to cover in moving prose and with a vigorous storyline - if only more people and nations were listening.
(I need to reread)
🇩🇪Home from the war to a nation that doesn’t care about the sacrifices, the crippling wounds, the war shock the veterans deal with (what we now call PTSD) ... sound familiar?
🇩🇪Remarque writes eloquently and with a powerful rawness about the end of WW1 and the life (or rather lack of life) he and other German soldiers returned to. Occasionally, he gets preachy in his anger at how veterans were mistreated and ignored by the Fatherland, but overall the book is a strong swift read full of beauty and pain ... characters from All Quiet, like Paul Baumer, are mentioned in it ...
🇩🇪Once again, here is a Remarque tragedy sprinkled with shards of light and hope for humanity. Once again, here is a Remarque war novel that rails against the brutality and wickedness of war from cover to cover in moving prose and with a vigorous storyline - if only more people and nations were listening.
(I need to reread)
April 24, 2020
WW1 has come to an end. German soldiers, young and less young, go back home and resume their former lives... supposedly.
1. THE STORY :
=> A neverending demobilization :
Back in Germany, it dawns on the soldiers that their relatives have carried on with their lives during the war, and aditionally, that they have done admirably without them. Those hoping for a warm welcome, help and support, or some token of gratefulness only meet with torpid indifference.
As a whole, the civilians can't care less about the horrors witnessed and performed by those enlisted. The soldiers' families put up with them, as long as they do not tell them about the last 4 years in the frontline. Germany craves nothing but forgetting a strenuous and thankless conflict. On the one hand, the heroes do not recognize their hometowns, one the other hand, their inhabitants do not recognize them.
=> Poverty and haggling :
Come peace, soldiers have to get used to bargaining again in poverty-ridden Germany. They get used to bartering their medals, pilfer food in the countryside. As life goes on, the fellows realize the mockery of the ideals and objectives they fought for. What with Kaiser Wilhelm's fleeing overseas, the newfangled German Republic, the ambiant logocracy...
- The Way Back - Erich Maria Remarque (transl.)
2. THE STRENGTHS
=> In this sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front, it is striking to meet not that many characters from the prequel... You cannot help noticing how many of them are missing from the scenery, because they have never made it past the trenches.
=> The wide range of characters displayed by Remarque allows him to sketch several possible paths for soldiers surviving war :
- The hospital for severely burned or gassed patients,
- Venereal diseases caught in the brothel,
- Suicide,
- The mental institution,
- Familial ties frayed : adultery, new marriage, parents unable to recognize their child within the soldier, and the soldier within the child,
- Denial of the past war,
- Commitment with political parties, trade unions, and other forms of associations not to face the ever-increasing solitude of the survivors,
- Reenlistment.
=> The same as in All Quiet on the Western Front, the hero-narrator stands out because of the almost naturalistic attention he bears to nature, to the here and now. Present time, fleeting instants conveyed by unadorned, limpid writing. Ultimately, this is the resource in which the narrator finds a manner of personal salvation of sorts and the former soldier, some semblance of peace.
Fond musical :
Symphonie triste - Jean Sibelius
----------
La première guerre mondiale est terminée. Des soldats allemands, jeunes ou moins jeunes, regagnent le pays et, pensent-ils, leur vie d'avant.
1. LE SUJET :
=> Une démobilisation qui n'en finit pas :
À leur retour, les soldats réalisent pleinement que leurs connaissances ont continué leur vie et que, pour la plupart d'entre eux, les civils se sont bien accommodés de leur absence. Ceux qui espéraient un accueil, une forme de reconnaissance, une entraide et un soutien se heurtent à une indifférence hébétée. Les civils prétendent passer sous silence les abominations dont les soldats ont été témoins ou acteurs. Le retour à la vie civile est éprouvant. Très peu espèrent se faire comprendre de ceux qui n'ont pas tutoyé la mort dans les tranchées. On est prêt à les souffrir, aussi longtemps qu'ils passent sous silence leurs doutes et leurs horreurs et qu'ils barrent d'un trait quatre années d'une vie pour eux innommable. Dans une Allemagne qui a soif d'oubli, les soldats se sentent vite de trop. Portant l'habit militaire, encore pleins de leurs habitudes prises au front, ils ne reconnaissent pas leur village et n'en sont pas reconnus.
=> Misère et marchandages :
Avec la paix, les soldats redécouvrent les mille négociations et trafics de la vie civile. Dans la misère de l'Allemagne vaincue, on revend des médailles, on se lance dans le trafic de provisions, on survit par la maraude et on ruse. Chemin faisant, les anciens camarades s'aperçoivent de la dérision de tout ce pour quoi ils se sont battus. La fuite du Kaiser Wilhelm, et la logocratie ambiante leur ouvre vite les yeux.
- Après - Erich Maria Remarque trad. Raoul Maillard et Christian Sauerwein, p.297.
2. LES GRANDS POINTS FORTS
=> Dans ce récit qui se place à la suite d'À l'ouest rien de nouveau, on retrouve de loin en loin certains des ses personnages : Paul Bäumer, Stanislaus Katczinsky, Tjaden...
Le lecteur n'en mesure que mieux le nombre d'absents.
=> En choisissant de faire figurer une bande de camarades soldats, Remarque dresse un éventail des destins d'anciens soldats revenus de la guerre :
- L'hôpital pour les grands brûlés, les gazés
- La contraction de maladies vénériennes après la fréquentation de bordels de campagne
- Le suicide
- La maison de force
- Des relations de couple ou familiales qui se délitent : adultère, nouveau couple noué pendant l'absence, parents incapables de reconnaître l'enfant dans le soldat et le soldat dans l'enfant,...
- Le déni du passé de la guerre chez certains soldats
- L'engagement dans les causes politiques, les syndicats ; toutes sortes d'affairement pour ne pas affronter la solitude du survivant.
- Le rengagement dans l'armée
=> Comme dans À l'ouest rien de nouveau, le héros-narrateur se distingue par l'attention presque naturaliste qu'il porte à la nature, au présent. Le moment biologique, l'impression instantanée s'élèvent à l'éternité, portés par une écriture simple et limpide. C'est dans cette ressource que l'homme trouve une forme de salut personnel, modeste, et l'ancien soldat, une forme de paix.
Fond musical :
Symphonie triste - Jean Sibelius
1. THE STORY :
=> A neverending demobilization :
Back in Germany, it dawns on the soldiers that their relatives have carried on with their lives during the war, and aditionally, that they have done admirably without them. Those hoping for a warm welcome, help and support, or some token of gratefulness only meet with torpid indifference.
As a whole, the civilians can't care less about the horrors witnessed and performed by those enlisted. The soldiers' families put up with them, as long as they do not tell them about the last 4 years in the frontline. Germany craves nothing but forgetting a strenuous and thankless conflict. On the one hand, the heroes do not recognize their hometowns, one the other hand, their inhabitants do not recognize them.
=> Poverty and haggling :
Come peace, soldiers have to get used to bargaining again in poverty-ridden Germany. They get used to bartering their medals, pilfer food in the countryside. As life goes on, the fellows realize the mockery of the ideals and objectives they fought for. What with Kaiser Wilhelm's fleeing overseas, the newfangled German Republic, the ambiant logocracy...
'Should I tell you that all learning, all culture, all science is nothing but hideous mockery, so long as mankind makes war in the name of God and humanity with gas, iron, explosive and fire?'
- The Way Back - Erich Maria Remarque (transl.)
2. THE STRENGTHS
=> In this sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front, it is striking to meet not that many characters from the prequel... You cannot help noticing how many of them are missing from the scenery, because they have never made it past the trenches.
=> The wide range of characters displayed by Remarque allows him to sketch several possible paths for soldiers surviving war :
- The hospital for severely burned or gassed patients,
- Venereal diseases caught in the brothel,
- Suicide,
- The mental institution,
- Familial ties frayed : adultery, new marriage, parents unable to recognize their child within the soldier, and the soldier within the child,
- Denial of the past war,
- Commitment with political parties, trade unions, and other forms of associations not to face the ever-increasing solitude of the survivors,
- Reenlistment.
=> The same as in All Quiet on the Western Front, the hero-narrator stands out because of the almost naturalistic attention he bears to nature, to the here and now. Present time, fleeting instants conveyed by unadorned, limpid writing. Ultimately, this is the resource in which the narrator finds a manner of personal salvation of sorts and the former soldier, some semblance of peace.
Fond musical :
Symphonie triste - Jean Sibelius
----------
La première guerre mondiale est terminée. Des soldats allemands, jeunes ou moins jeunes, regagnent le pays et, pensent-ils, leur vie d'avant.
1. LE SUJET :
=> Une démobilisation qui n'en finit pas :
À leur retour, les soldats réalisent pleinement que leurs connaissances ont continué leur vie et que, pour la plupart d'entre eux, les civils se sont bien accommodés de leur absence. Ceux qui espéraient un accueil, une forme de reconnaissance, une entraide et un soutien se heurtent à une indifférence hébétée. Les civils prétendent passer sous silence les abominations dont les soldats ont été témoins ou acteurs. Le retour à la vie civile est éprouvant. Très peu espèrent se faire comprendre de ceux qui n'ont pas tutoyé la mort dans les tranchées. On est prêt à les souffrir, aussi longtemps qu'ils passent sous silence leurs doutes et leurs horreurs et qu'ils barrent d'un trait quatre années d'une vie pour eux innommable. Dans une Allemagne qui a soif d'oubli, les soldats se sentent vite de trop. Portant l'habit militaire, encore pleins de leurs habitudes prises au front, ils ne reconnaissent pas leur village et n'en sont pas reconnus.
=> Misère et marchandages :
Avec la paix, les soldats redécouvrent les mille négociations et trafics de la vie civile. Dans la misère de l'Allemagne vaincue, on revend des médailles, on se lance dans le trafic de provisions, on survit par la maraude et on ruse. Chemin faisant, les anciens camarades s'aperçoivent de la dérision de tout ce pour quoi ils se sont battus. La fuite du Kaiser Wilhelm, et la logocratie ambiante leur ouvre vite les yeux.
'Dois-je vous raconter que toute l'instruction, toute la civilisation, toute la science ne peuvent être qu'une effroyable dérision aussi longtemps que les hommes se feront la guerre avec les gaz, le fer, la poudre et le feu au nom de Dieu et de l'Humanité ?'
- Après - Erich Maria Remarque trad. Raoul Maillard et Christian Sauerwein, p.297.
2. LES GRANDS POINTS FORTS
=> Dans ce récit qui se place à la suite d'À l'ouest rien de nouveau, on retrouve de loin en loin certains des ses personnages : Paul Bäumer, Stanislaus Katczinsky, Tjaden...
Le lecteur n'en mesure que mieux le nombre d'absents.
=> En choisissant de faire figurer une bande de camarades soldats, Remarque dresse un éventail des destins d'anciens soldats revenus de la guerre :
- L'hôpital pour les grands brûlés, les gazés
- La contraction de maladies vénériennes après la fréquentation de bordels de campagne
- Le suicide
- La maison de force
- Des relations de couple ou familiales qui se délitent : adultère, nouveau couple noué pendant l'absence, parents incapables de reconnaître l'enfant dans le soldat et le soldat dans l'enfant,...
- Le déni du passé de la guerre chez certains soldats
- L'engagement dans les causes politiques, les syndicats ; toutes sortes d'affairement pour ne pas affronter la solitude du survivant.
- Le rengagement dans l'armée
=> Comme dans À l'ouest rien de nouveau, le héros-narrateur se distingue par l'attention presque naturaliste qu'il porte à la nature, au présent. Le moment biologique, l'impression instantanée s'élèvent à l'éternité, portés par une écriture simple et limpide. C'est dans cette ressource que l'homme trouve une forme de salut personnel, modeste, et l'ancien soldat, une forme de paix.
Fond musical :
Symphonie triste - Jean Sibelius
August 25, 2018
Of all the prose writers I have yet read, none can surpass Remarque. No writer I have encountered understands the human condition as deeply as he does. For Remarque's characters, life is a symbiosis; death and loss on the one hand, camaraderie and one's ability to enmesh oneself in the wonder of nature, with all its hopeful, healing potential, on the other.
A fitting yet unique follow up to its notorious predecessor, this novel is a scathing indictment of war and the betrayal of not just a generation or a single nation, but a snapshot into the brutalisation of an entire world - its people, its ecology. Ultimately though, it is an authentic tale of survival and a magnificent testament to human fragility, friendship and endurance.
A fitting yet unique follow up to its notorious predecessor, this novel is a scathing indictment of war and the betrayal of not just a generation or a single nation, but a snapshot into the brutalisation of an entire world - its people, its ecology. Ultimately though, it is an authentic tale of survival and a magnificent testament to human fragility, friendship and endurance.
September 5, 2020
How near they come together, yesterday and today, death and life!
*
A vague, threatening something seems to be sneaking upon me; it retreats when I try to grapple with it, it disperses when I advance upon it, and then it gathers again behind me and watches.
*
I see now that it has all been in vain—I have been running about and about, I have knocked again at all the doors of my youth and desired to enter in there; I thought, surely it must admit me again, for I am still young and have wished so much to forget—but it fled always before me like a will-o'-the-wisp, it fell away without sound, it crumbled like tinder at my lightest touch. And I could not understand—Surely here at least something of it must remain? I attempted it again and again, and as a result made myself merely ridiculous and wretched. But now I know, I know now that a still, silent war has ravaged this country of my memories also; I know now it would be useless for me to look farther. Time lies between like a great gulf; I cannot get back. There is nothing for it; I must go forward, march onward, anywhere, it matters nothing, I have no goal.
*
Was there no flash of lightning then that tore me away? Did no country suddenly founder and go down about me, leaving me only surviving, all else this moment perished and lost to me for ever?
*
Unconsciously I begin to walk faster, breathe deeper. I will have it again—I must have it again. It shall come again, else what reason is there to live?
*
Ach, love—it is a torch falling into an abyss, revealing nothing but only how deep it is!
*
[...] but where man is unhappy, what help is there then in such fickle, ambiguous things as words? They can only make matters worse.
*
The noiseless streams of the earth ebb and flow, and my blood flows with them; it is borne along with them and has part in them all. Through the warm dark of the earth it is flowing with the meaning of crystals and quartzes, it is in the secret sound of the weight with which drops sink down among the roots and assemble to thin runnels in search of the springs. With them it breaks out again from under the ground, it is in brooks and in rivers, in the glistening banks, in the breadth of the sea and in the. moist silver vapour the sun draws up again to the clouds—it circles and circles, it takes ever more and more of me with it and empties it into the earth and underground streams; the chest sinks and collapses, the arms fall away, slowly and without pain the body disappears; it is gone; now only the fabric, only the husks remain. The body has become the trickling of subterranean springs, the talk of the grasses, moving wind, rustling leaf, and silent, resounding sky. The meadow comes nearer, flowers grow through it, blossoms sway over it; I have sunk down, forgotten, poured away under poppies and yellow marsh marigolds, over which butterflies and dragon-flies hover.
*
A vague, threatening something seems to be sneaking upon me; it retreats when I try to grapple with it, it disperses when I advance upon it, and then it gathers again behind me and watches.
*
I see now that it has all been in vain—I have been running about and about, I have knocked again at all the doors of my youth and desired to enter in there; I thought, surely it must admit me again, for I am still young and have wished so much to forget—but it fled always before me like a will-o'-the-wisp, it fell away without sound, it crumbled like tinder at my lightest touch. And I could not understand—Surely here at least something of it must remain? I attempted it again and again, and as a result made myself merely ridiculous and wretched. But now I know, I know now that a still, silent war has ravaged this country of my memories also; I know now it would be useless for me to look farther. Time lies between like a great gulf; I cannot get back. There is nothing for it; I must go forward, march onward, anywhere, it matters nothing, I have no goal.
*
Was there no flash of lightning then that tore me away? Did no country suddenly founder and go down about me, leaving me only surviving, all else this moment perished and lost to me for ever?
*
Unconsciously I begin to walk faster, breathe deeper. I will have it again—I must have it again. It shall come again, else what reason is there to live?
*
Ach, love—it is a torch falling into an abyss, revealing nothing but only how deep it is!
*
[...] but where man is unhappy, what help is there then in such fickle, ambiguous things as words? They can only make matters worse.
*
The noiseless streams of the earth ebb and flow, and my blood flows with them; it is borne along with them and has part in them all. Through the warm dark of the earth it is flowing with the meaning of crystals and quartzes, it is in the secret sound of the weight with which drops sink down among the roots and assemble to thin runnels in search of the springs. With them it breaks out again from under the ground, it is in brooks and in rivers, in the glistening banks, in the breadth of the sea and in the. moist silver vapour the sun draws up again to the clouds—it circles and circles, it takes ever more and more of me with it and empties it into the earth and underground streams; the chest sinks and collapses, the arms fall away, slowly and without pain the body disappears; it is gone; now only the fabric, only the husks remain. The body has become the trickling of subterranean springs, the talk of the grasses, moving wind, rustling leaf, and silent, resounding sky. The meadow comes nearer, flowers grow through it, blossoms sway over it; I have sunk down, forgotten, poured away under poppies and yellow marsh marigolds, over which butterflies and dragon-flies hover.
March 20, 2020
This book perfectly describes the aimlessness after a war and the state in which people are left. The scars for life and why we have had so many grandparents who can only talk about the war - they never got over it. The lack of care and understanding cuts to the bone.
January 24, 2019
On completion of this book one feels wiped out. A book about war and its aftermath should leave you upset.
The Road Back is the second in a series of two, the first being All Quiet on the Western Front. The first is a tremendous book, a book EVERYONE should read. This second should also be read, but it does not reach up to the caliber of the first. The first takes place in the trenches of France during the First World War. The second takes place in Germany after the war. What makes both books particularly noteworthy is that rather than focusing on the victorious, we look at the war’s losers, the German soldiers who fought and lost. The characters in the second book are for the most part not those in the first. One does presume though that the characters in the second are from the same company as those in the first since they are spoken of. The second book focuses on what faced the German men on their return to their homeland. Both of course are about the horror and the futility of war.
The book depicts the poverty, the lack of food, the rampant profiteering and prostitution that arose, the unstable political situation, the lack of jobs and the German authorities disregard for the returned soldiers’ problems and needs. As a book of historical fiction depicting the situation of Germany after the war, it is exemplary. The mental and physical suffering of the maimed men, those who were lucky enough to return alive, comes to the fore.
The book has a large cast of characters. Some are referred to both by their first and last name. I am fully aware of the need to draw them as a company of men rather than separate individuals; their sense of being part of a group, comrades that through thick and thin they could depend on, is what got them through the war. Nevertheless, one feels less attachment to the separate individuals, there are just too many for that and keeping straight what has happened to each is extremely difficult. In my view, this weakens the book. While the book excellently draws the situation in Germany, it failed to make me feel deep empathy for the characters. This is something I am looking for in a book of historical fiction.
One might complain about the book’s ending. One finds out what happens to each of the many characters but for the central character, he who narrates the story, we find out whether he surmounts his personal difficulties but not how..
The audiobook narration by Graham Halstead is fine. Neither bad nor extraordinarily well read either. I have given the narration three stars. The tempo is fine, and the words are clearly pronounced.
I do recommend this book, despite the fact that to get the most out of it you really need to take notes. Jotting down the characters’ names and what exactly happens to each is helpful.
********************
All Quiet on the Western Front 5 stars
The Road Back 4 stars
Arch of Triumph: A Novel of a Man Without a Country 4 stars
The Black Obelisk TBR
The Road Back is the second in a series of two, the first being All Quiet on the Western Front. The first is a tremendous book, a book EVERYONE should read. This second should also be read, but it does not reach up to the caliber of the first. The first takes place in the trenches of France during the First World War. The second takes place in Germany after the war. What makes both books particularly noteworthy is that rather than focusing on the victorious, we look at the war’s losers, the German soldiers who fought and lost. The characters in the second book are for the most part not those in the first. One does presume though that the characters in the second are from the same company as those in the first since they are spoken of. The second book focuses on what faced the German men on their return to their homeland. Both of course are about the horror and the futility of war.
The book depicts the poverty, the lack of food, the rampant profiteering and prostitution that arose, the unstable political situation, the lack of jobs and the German authorities disregard for the returned soldiers’ problems and needs. As a book of historical fiction depicting the situation of Germany after the war, it is exemplary. The mental and physical suffering of the maimed men, those who were lucky enough to return alive, comes to the fore.
The book has a large cast of characters. Some are referred to both by their first and last name. I am fully aware of the need to draw them as a company of men rather than separate individuals; their sense of being part of a group, comrades that through thick and thin they could depend on, is what got them through the war. Nevertheless, one feels less attachment to the separate individuals, there are just too many for that and keeping straight what has happened to each is extremely difficult. In my view, this weakens the book. While the book excellently draws the situation in Germany, it failed to make me feel deep empathy for the characters. This is something I am looking for in a book of historical fiction.
One might complain about the book’s ending. One finds out what happens to each of the many characters but for the central character, he who narrates the story, we find out whether he surmounts his personal difficulties but not how..
The audiobook narration by Graham Halstead is fine. Neither bad nor extraordinarily well read either. I have given the narration three stars. The tempo is fine, and the words are clearly pronounced.
I do recommend this book, despite the fact that to get the most out of it you really need to take notes. Jotting down the characters’ names and what exactly happens to each is helpful.
********************
All Quiet on the Western Front 5 stars
The Road Back 4 stars
Arch of Triumph: A Novel of a Man Without a Country 4 stars
The Black Obelisk TBR
November 14, 2014
The Road back, although less well known than All Quiet on the Western Front, is just as thought-provoking and, in subtle ways, even more heart breaking.
The story begins during the last few days of WWI. As battle rages around them, a group of young German soldiers contemplate what peace will be like and dream of returning home with both fear and longing. They grieve for lost comrades who won't be returning with them but anticipate the joy of being back with friends and family, of returning, finally, to their old lives.
When peace finally does arrive, they head home anticipating a hero's welcome; instead, they are met with indifference and lack of understanding. The people who had remained behind while they were off fighting for the Fatherland, have continued their lives without them and, for these people, peace is not much different from war - everything is pretty much the same. But these young men have changed. When they marched away to war, they were just boys, hardly more than children, with all the hopes and innocent dreams of youth; they have returned as men, old before their time, damaged physically and psychically and they no longer fit into this civilized world.
Nothing is the same for them and they feel lost and betrayed. Wives have taken lovers, jobs, once promised, are now occupied by others who hadn't left, they are too old and too restless to return easily to their studies, and they no longer respect those who once held authority over them - parents, teachers, police. They are scorned by the profiteers who became rich off the war and they have been forgotten by the girls they left behind. They suffer from shell-shock and depression and can't shake habits they developed for survival in the trenches. They steal to eat even though food is available, they have flash backs and jump at every loud noise, and their nights are plagued with nightmares.
One reenlists, hoping to regain the companionship they had shared during the war only to discover it doesn't exist in a peacetime army. One seeks to change the world through revolution only to be shot and killed by soldiers whom he once fought alongside. For some, the only solution is suicide and, for a very few, including Ernst, the narrator of the story, true peace is finally found in nature.
The Road back is possibly the hardest, most gut-wrenching book I have ever read. Remarque's characters are so vividly drawn that they seem to live in the pages and it is impossible not to feel every lost hope, every disappointment, every pain, every betrayal that they feel. This book is a must read for anyone whether pro- or anti-war, who wants to understand what it is to be a soldier during wartime.
The story begins during the last few days of WWI. As battle rages around them, a group of young German soldiers contemplate what peace will be like and dream of returning home with both fear and longing. They grieve for lost comrades who won't be returning with them but anticipate the joy of being back with friends and family, of returning, finally, to their old lives.
When peace finally does arrive, they head home anticipating a hero's welcome; instead, they are met with indifference and lack of understanding. The people who had remained behind while they were off fighting for the Fatherland, have continued their lives without them and, for these people, peace is not much different from war - everything is pretty much the same. But these young men have changed. When they marched away to war, they were just boys, hardly more than children, with all the hopes and innocent dreams of youth; they have returned as men, old before their time, damaged physically and psychically and they no longer fit into this civilized world.
Nothing is the same for them and they feel lost and betrayed. Wives have taken lovers, jobs, once promised, are now occupied by others who hadn't left, they are too old and too restless to return easily to their studies, and they no longer respect those who once held authority over them - parents, teachers, police. They are scorned by the profiteers who became rich off the war and they have been forgotten by the girls they left behind. They suffer from shell-shock and depression and can't shake habits they developed for survival in the trenches. They steal to eat even though food is available, they have flash backs and jump at every loud noise, and their nights are plagued with nightmares.
One reenlists, hoping to regain the companionship they had shared during the war only to discover it doesn't exist in a peacetime army. One seeks to change the world through revolution only to be shot and killed by soldiers whom he once fought alongside. For some, the only solution is suicide and, for a very few, including Ernst, the narrator of the story, true peace is finally found in nature.
The Road back is possibly the hardest, most gut-wrenching book I have ever read. Remarque's characters are so vividly drawn that they seem to live in the pages and it is impossible not to feel every lost hope, every disappointment, every pain, every betrayal that they feel. This book is a must read for anyone whether pro- or anti-war, who wants to understand what it is to be a soldier during wartime.
May 27, 2021
The Road Back is a remarkable novel by one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century. It has the authenticity and often brutal insight of a man who had personally endured and survived the mechanised slaughter of the First World War. The novel describes the adjustments, frustrations and struggles the veterans of that war experienced as they attempted to reintegrate themselves into post-war German society. There is a strong sense of comradeship amongst the men he writes about. A thread throughout the novels is that although the soldiers can understand civilian life, the civilian population cannot comprehend what the survivors and slain had suffered in the trenches, and are ungrateful and indifferent towards them. There is an element of resentment that the sacrifices made had been in vain and that, after the war had ended, the soldiers who had fought it had been abandoned. Remarque includes a variety of characters, each with their own priorities and burdens. For instance, one soldier prioritises the luxury of food and courts a butcher's daughter, another still regards the men he has killed as trophies that he still maintains a proud tally of, still unable to see the enemies he has shot as men like himself, whilst one of the officers seeks out an old battlefield and despairingly communes with the phantoms whose brief lives ended senselessly in the trenches. There are many very poignant moments and Remarque gives the reader a very vivid impression of the many ways the First World War ruined a generation, both during the conflict and in the years that followed it.
August 27, 2023
I was ready for an utterly sad closing of this amazing novel. It's strange but I am glad. I have read the last 3 pages couple of times, of course because of its therapeutic purpose. There is a tremendous shout in favour of life, of hope and belief, of will and strength, but mostly ability to go on, wherever that path will lead. Maybe, just maybe, things will turn better in the future if more human beings will have the chance to read such wonderful books from early youth. Maybe, just maybe, to replace some sheer idealism with some of the life's true and hard lessons. It's a matter of chance, of luck, of stars and planets, maybe or maybe not.
December 3, 2020
This is the sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front. That one,is a favourite book of mine. I had high expectations of the sequel. It left me a bit disappointed.
Its predecessor was a hard act to follow. I'm not exactly surprised that the book is not as good. Also,the first book was about the war (WW I),and was much more intense.
This one is more about returning and defeated German soldiers trying to fit back into civilian life. While trying to evade death was their constant preoccupation at the front,life in peacetime is a lot slower,and cannot match that high.
Their military skills have become useless after coming back.Most of their fellow soldiers have been killed,there are food shortages and political unrest. Their women have taken new lovers.
The dilemmas of returning soldiers are similar in all wars,and are more intense if they have been defeated,injured and demobilised.
What made the book disappointing for me,is that it's very slow,and bored me. Not much happens. It's certainly not comparable to All Quiet on the Western Front.
Its predecessor was a hard act to follow. I'm not exactly surprised that the book is not as good. Also,the first book was about the war (WW I),and was much more intense.
This one is more about returning and defeated German soldiers trying to fit back into civilian life. While trying to evade death was their constant preoccupation at the front,life in peacetime is a lot slower,and cannot match that high.
Their military skills have become useless after coming back.Most of their fellow soldiers have been killed,there are food shortages and political unrest. Their women have taken new lovers.
The dilemmas of returning soldiers are similar in all wars,and are more intense if they have been defeated,injured and demobilised.
What made the book disappointing for me,is that it's very slow,and bored me. Not much happens. It's certainly not comparable to All Quiet on the Western Front.
December 6, 2022
W twórczości Remarque’a jest coś, co z każdą jego kolejną książką, po którą sięgam, we mnie dojrzewa i za każdym kolejnym razem wywołuje większe zdumienie i podziw.
(4.5)
(4.5)
May 31, 2018
This novel is the sequel to Remarque's most famous All Quiet on the Western Front. It is a collective portrait of the returning soldiers from the Great War who failed to reckon with the make-believe peace that followed. The experience at the front shattered them from the rest of the world. This is no longer our world; the trenches ousted it. The loss of comradeship, mostly due to the divisive force of revolution, also featured as a major source of despair. Things were simpler at the front where comrades marched together, noble and good. A nice mess we have made of it.
I expected to gain more historical information about post-war Germany from this novel which it didn't offer, but still a traumatizingly superb read.
I expected to gain more historical information about post-war Germany from this novel which it didn't offer, but still a traumatizingly superb read.
January 21, 2023
O continuare care merită să se afle pe același piedestal cu primul roman. De data asta protagonistul este Ernst, din câte se pare un coleg de școală al lui Paul, personajul principal și naratorul din Nimic nou pe frontul de vest, și coleg de companie cu acesta. Povestea spusă de Ernst începe în ultimele zile ale războiului și a avut efectul de a mă introduce imediat în atmosferă, mai ales că impresia celor citite în primul roman încă era (este) proaspătă. Totuși, Ernst și cei câțiva tineri rămași în viață au „norocul” să audă cuvântul pace, care nu mai e o himeră, ci ceva real. Războiul se încheie, iar ei trebuie să se întoarcă acasă. Drumul înapoi acasă și, ulterior, spre readaptare este neașteptat de greu. După patru ani în care din niște adolescenți naivi, cu veleități literare, cu visuri și speranțe, au fost transformați în mașinării de ucis, lipsite de frică și remușcări, descoperă că nu mai știu cine sunt și unde le este locul. Suferă toți de tulburări, un fel de PTSD nedefinit încă, și nimeni nu-i ajută să se adapteze noii/vechii vieți.
Acasă dau de reproșuri, prejudecăți, infidelități, sărăcie, foame, așteptări, schimbări pe care nu le înțeleg și la care nu au luat parte, dezamăgiri sentimentale etc. Cei dragi pur și simplu nu-i mai înțeleg. Nu înțeleg de ce vorbesc porcos, de ce fură mâncare, de ce mănâncă fără tacâmuri, de ce caută compania foștilor camarazi, de ce au coșmaruri și de ce nu pot dormi. Sunt îndrumați să-și continue studiile, dar cum ar putea s-o facă, după ce au cunoscut războiul, alături de niște copii care nu au făcut-o? Chiar dacă se țin cu dinții de vechile relații de pe front, din tranșee, de camaraderie, descoperă că rolurile s-au schimbat. Cei mai buni soldați de pe front au revenit la vechea ordine socială. Acum ei trebuie să tacă, în timp ce foștii papă-lapte din război au revenit la statutul și averea dinainte. Nu se mai tutuiesc, ci trec la dumneavoastră. Iubitele și fetele pentru care au trăit arzătoare pasiuni au uitat de ei, dar nici ei nu ar mai ști cum să iubească. Totul pare inutil, pueril, nesemnificativ. Continuă să caute un sens pentru război, deși în jur văd doar simulacre de revoluții și schimbări. Unii ostași, care au descoperit că nu mai știu să facă nimic altceva decât să tragă și să omoare, au întors armele împotriva foștilor camarazi. Cei mai slabi și mai deznădăjduiți se sinucid. Alții se pierd din varii motive. Războiul s-a încheiat demult, dar ei tot cad, pe fronturi invizibile.
Ernst păstrează același aer de resemnare ca și Paul. O tristețe calmă, în fața unor fapte împlinite, pe care nu are puterea să le schimbe. Spre deosebire de restul personajelor, Ernst pare totuși că reușește să păstreze o doză de optimism, în ciuda a toate pe care le vede, le trăiește și a tuturor colegilor pe care îi pierde.
E un roman despre inutilitatea războiului. Despre cum nimeni nu câștigă din asemenea barbarii. Despre prăpăstiile care se ivesc între cei de pe front și cei de acasă deși, teoretic, au luptat toți, în diferite moduri, pentru același țel. Este, de asemenea, despre cum un război continuă mult după semnarea păcii, despre cum încetarea focului nu înseamnă încetarea suferinței ci, din contră, agravarea acesteia. Dacă pe front ea era ascunsă bine, acum are ocazia să iasă la suprafață și să-i macine pe cei care au supraviețuit. Este despre oameni care caută o mână de ajutor, o vorbă bună, un gram de înțelegere și despre cum nimeni nu vrea să le ofere. În 300 de pagini, naratorul reușește să ne treacă prin (bănuiesc) toate greutățile și problemele vieții de fost combatant. Iar printre experiențele de acasă, reușește să strecoare și amintiri, coșmaruri de pe front.
Dacă mai-marii lumii, cei care printr-un ordin pot ucide milioane și distruge societăți întregi, ar avea asemenea cărți pe lista de lectură, poate că am vedea mai puține războaie. Dar cei îmbătați de putere nu citesc cărți, ci vor cărți scrise despre ei – mari conducători de oști fără să pășească vreodată pe un câmp de luptă.
5/5
Acasă dau de reproșuri, prejudecăți, infidelități, sărăcie, foame, așteptări, schimbări pe care nu le înțeleg și la care nu au luat parte, dezamăgiri sentimentale etc. Cei dragi pur și simplu nu-i mai înțeleg. Nu înțeleg de ce vorbesc porcos, de ce fură mâncare, de ce mănâncă fără tacâmuri, de ce caută compania foștilor camarazi, de ce au coșmaruri și de ce nu pot dormi. Sunt îndrumați să-și continue studiile, dar cum ar putea s-o facă, după ce au cunoscut războiul, alături de niște copii care nu au făcut-o? Chiar dacă se țin cu dinții de vechile relații de pe front, din tranșee, de camaraderie, descoperă că rolurile s-au schimbat. Cei mai buni soldați de pe front au revenit la vechea ordine socială. Acum ei trebuie să tacă, în timp ce foștii papă-lapte din război au revenit la statutul și averea dinainte. Nu se mai tutuiesc, ci trec la dumneavoastră. Iubitele și fetele pentru care au trăit arzătoare pasiuni au uitat de ei, dar nici ei nu ar mai ști cum să iubească. Totul pare inutil, pueril, nesemnificativ. Continuă să caute un sens pentru război, deși în jur văd doar simulacre de revoluții și schimbări. Unii ostași, care au descoperit că nu mai știu să facă nimic altceva decât să tragă și să omoare, au întors armele împotriva foștilor camarazi. Cei mai slabi și mai deznădăjduiți se sinucid. Alții se pierd din varii motive. Războiul s-a încheiat demult, dar ei tot cad, pe fronturi invizibile.
Ernst păstrează același aer de resemnare ca și Paul. O tristețe calmă, în fața unor fapte împlinite, pe care nu are puterea să le schimbe. Spre deosebire de restul personajelor, Ernst pare totuși că reușește să păstreze o doză de optimism, în ciuda a toate pe care le vede, le trăiește și a tuturor colegilor pe care îi pierde.
E un roman despre inutilitatea războiului. Despre cum nimeni nu câștigă din asemenea barbarii. Despre prăpăstiile care se ivesc între cei de pe front și cei de acasă deși, teoretic, au luptat toți, în diferite moduri, pentru același țel. Este, de asemenea, despre cum un război continuă mult după semnarea păcii, despre cum încetarea focului nu înseamnă încetarea suferinței ci, din contră, agravarea acesteia. Dacă pe front ea era ascunsă bine, acum are ocazia să iasă la suprafață și să-i macine pe cei care au supraviețuit. Este despre oameni care caută o mână de ajutor, o vorbă bună, un gram de înțelegere și despre cum nimeni nu vrea să le ofere. În 300 de pagini, naratorul reușește să ne treacă prin (bănuiesc) toate greutățile și problemele vieții de fost combatant. Iar printre experiențele de acasă, reușește să strecoare și amintiri, coșmaruri de pe front.
Dacă mai-marii lumii, cei care printr-un ordin pot ucide milioane și distruge societăți întregi, ar avea asemenea cărți pe lista de lectură, poate că am vedea mai puține războaie. Dar cei îmbătați de putere nu citesc cărți, ci vor cărți scrise despre ei – mari conducători de oști fără să pășească vreodată pe un câmp de luptă.
„Tresar și privesc în jur. În urma noastră, camarazii mei zac pe tărgi și strigă după noi. E pace, dar ei trebuie totuși să moară. În schimb, eu mă cutremur de fericire și nu îmi e rușine. Ciudat lucru!
Poate că de aceea izbucnesc mereu războaie, fiindcă omul nu poate intui niciodată pe de-a-ntregul suferințele altora.”
„Viața a mers și continuă să meargă înainte, de parcă prezența noastră ar fi de prisos.”
„— Cât am fost pe front, mi-au trecut multe prin minte, Ernst, și n-am reușit să le pun cap la cap. Acum însă, după ce au trecut toate, aș vrea să aflu multe lucruri. De pildă, ce fel de oameni sunt cei care au lăsat ca asemenea fapte să se întâmple și cum de-a fost posibil să se întâmple; și ce rost au avut. Sunt multe întrebări. Chiar și despre noi înșine. Mai demult aveam cu totul alte păreri despre viață. Aș vrea să aflu multe, Ernst.”
„— Nu te teme, o liniștesc. Nu știu să sară. Păduchii nu sunt purici.
— Pentru Dumnezeu!
Își duce degetul la buze și face o mutră de parcă aș fi debitat naiba știe ce obscenitate. Așa sunt toți: ne vor eroi, dar să nu știe nimic despre păduchi.”
„Privesc atent grupul de profesori. […] Iată-i, aici, gata să ne predea iarăşi lecţii. Dar li se vede pe feţe că sunt dispuși să-și jertfească o parte din demnitatea lor. Căci ce fel de cunoștințe ar mai putea ei să ne mai transmită? Astăzi, noi cunoaștem viața mai bine ca ei, am dobândit un alt tip de cunoștințe, în chip sângeros, crud și fatal. Astăzi, noi suntem cei care am putea să le transmite lor cunoștințe, dar cine oare și-ar dori așa ceva?”
„— Și de ce, Georg? De ce? Fiindcă am fost înșelați... înșelați într-o așa măsură încât nici nu ne-am dat seama! Fiindcă s-a abuzat îngrozitor de noi! Ni s-a vorbit despre patrie, dar în joc erau planurile de cucerire ale unei industrii hrăpărețe. Ni s-a vorbit despre onoare, dar în joc erau conflictele și pornirile hegemonice ale unui grup restrâns de diplomați și principi. Ni s-a vorbit despre națiune, dar în joc era dorința de acțiune a unor generali lipsiți de ocupație!”
5/5
November 11, 2021
Erich Maria Remarque returns with a sequel to his epic Great War novel, exploring life after the armistice is signed and the German soldiers return home. While All Quiet on the Western Front depicted a strong war and 'behind the trenches' sentiment, this novel explores more the re-integration of soliders and how their time away served almost as a 'time gap' that left them wondering if they took a wrong turn on the journey. Remarque offers apt commentary through his prose to explore the struggles of returning home to settle, vilification by citizens, and trying to move forwards from what was seen on the battlegrounds. An eye-opening piece that complements the series debut well, even if I would not call it a classic.
It took four long and intense years, but the Great War has finally ended, with Germany on the losing side. Ernst and some of his fellow soldiers prepare to return home, hoping that things will go well, but worried about what awaits them. As they arrive, nothing is as it seems, from the tiny houses to the people who are less than eager to engage with them, while the rationale for war seems extinguished. This leaves Ernst wondering if it was a useless fight.
As they try to find their niche, Ernst and his fellow soldiers realise that peace may have been the worst thing for them., They are villains and mocked, Germany suffers dibilitating food shortages, and the political scene is anything but pleasant. Still, Ernst has to believe that the end to the fighting was propitious and strives to find himself in this new Germany. When something unexpected occurs, Ernst has an epiphany and discovers where he belongs in this world of unknowns.
It is always difficult to write a sequel to a highly popular and impactful novel, or so it would seem. Filling the boots of the highly-accliamed All Quiet on the Western Front is tough, to be sure, leaving Erich Maria Remarque in a difficult spot. While the book was surely not as strong or blatantly impactful as its predecessor, Remarque does well to leave the reader thinking and wondering throughout the story. Tales of war should leave the reader wondering things, particularly at this time of year. While the narrative was slow at times and I felt it did need a jolt, I was pleased with the message that resonated from its pages. It is too bad that some readers hold the books next to one another and pan this one for not being like its 'cousin'. Alas, it is those who see past this superficiality that can truly learn what Remarque is trying to convey.
Ernst was a great protagonist to offer the reader a wonderful message of war and re-integration. I found myself eager to see what he found and his sentiments about returning all those years later. There is a great deal that is discovered by young Ernst, not the least of which being that life was sure never to be the same after the war. The people treated soldiers differently, the sentiment of the country changed a great deal, and the future looked bleak. Ernst does his best to push through this and make his own impact, only to learn that things on the battlefield might have been preferable, at least to a degree.
Remarque is surely a stunning writer in his own right. While I have only read these two books up to this point, the way he depicts the fighting and the societal re-integration left me wanting to know more. I have always enjoyed the politics surrounding the Great War, as well as the fallout for both governments and people from the four year skirmish. Remarque brings all that to light here and provides the reader with something intense and well worth the reader's time. The narrative is surely not as impactful on a superficial level as the precediing book, but there are some stunning parts where the reader can see into the mind of the returning soldier or the citizen reacting to seeing them. Remarque does this so well and keeps the reader involved in the realisations that come of it. Broken into eight parts, the story shows the evolution of Germany in a post-war world and explores the changes that needed to be made, as well as the sentiments that would fuel the anger that led to the Second World War. I was quite taken by all of this and found myself wanting to learn more when I was able. I will also be checking out some of Erich Maria Remarque's other books about wartime.
Kudos, Mr. Remarque, for another powerful narrative that left me thinking well past the time I closed the book.
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It took four long and intense years, but the Great War has finally ended, with Germany on the losing side. Ernst and some of his fellow soldiers prepare to return home, hoping that things will go well, but worried about what awaits them. As they arrive, nothing is as it seems, from the tiny houses to the people who are less than eager to engage with them, while the rationale for war seems extinguished. This leaves Ernst wondering if it was a useless fight.
As they try to find their niche, Ernst and his fellow soldiers realise that peace may have been the worst thing for them., They are villains and mocked, Germany suffers dibilitating food shortages, and the political scene is anything but pleasant. Still, Ernst has to believe that the end to the fighting was propitious and strives to find himself in this new Germany. When something unexpected occurs, Ernst has an epiphany and discovers where he belongs in this world of unknowns.
It is always difficult to write a sequel to a highly popular and impactful novel, or so it would seem. Filling the boots of the highly-accliamed All Quiet on the Western Front is tough, to be sure, leaving Erich Maria Remarque in a difficult spot. While the book was surely not as strong or blatantly impactful as its predecessor, Remarque does well to leave the reader thinking and wondering throughout the story. Tales of war should leave the reader wondering things, particularly at this time of year. While the narrative was slow at times and I felt it did need a jolt, I was pleased with the message that resonated from its pages. It is too bad that some readers hold the books next to one another and pan this one for not being like its 'cousin'. Alas, it is those who see past this superficiality that can truly learn what Remarque is trying to convey.
Ernst was a great protagonist to offer the reader a wonderful message of war and re-integration. I found myself eager to see what he found and his sentiments about returning all those years later. There is a great deal that is discovered by young Ernst, not the least of which being that life was sure never to be the same after the war. The people treated soldiers differently, the sentiment of the country changed a great deal, and the future looked bleak. Ernst does his best to push through this and make his own impact, only to learn that things on the battlefield might have been preferable, at least to a degree.
Remarque is surely a stunning writer in his own right. While I have only read these two books up to this point, the way he depicts the fighting and the societal re-integration left me wanting to know more. I have always enjoyed the politics surrounding the Great War, as well as the fallout for both governments and people from the four year skirmish. Remarque brings all that to light here and provides the reader with something intense and well worth the reader's time. The narrative is surely not as impactful on a superficial level as the precediing book, but there are some stunning parts where the reader can see into the mind of the returning soldier or the citizen reacting to seeing them. Remarque does this so well and keeps the reader involved in the realisations that come of it. Broken into eight parts, the story shows the evolution of Germany in a post-war world and explores the changes that needed to be made, as well as the sentiments that would fuel the anger that led to the Second World War. I was quite taken by all of this and found myself wanting to learn more when I was able. I will also be checking out some of Erich Maria Remarque's other books about wartime.
Kudos, Mr. Remarque, for another powerful narrative that left me thinking well past the time I closed the book.
Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
March 30, 2018
PTSD in post-WWI Germany, the sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front. Episodic, not always linear, first-person narrator although it sometimes feels more like a close third, or even a sort of omniscient first-person when, thanks to Ernst's deep connection with his troubled former comrades, scenes are dramatized that the narrator couldn't know about (friend returning to the trenches alone at night and then shooting himself; how a room feels after another friend cuts open an artery and bleeds out). Teenagers taught to fight and survive, to kill and make it through, dreaming of home and returning alive, holding-up their return as their hope, have trouble reacclimating of course when they finally return and sit with loved ones and see the familiar landscape of their youth as a potential battlefield, have no patience for "fine phrases" about heroism or The Fatherland or anything along those lines, find their studies total bullshit, can't sit in a classroom and teach penmanship to 7 to 10 year olds when the horror they've experienced, the sense of betrayal, solely occupies their mind -- each of a handful of comrades not-so-deeply characterized (stage II case of disembodied proper noun syndrome) try to make their way back to a semblance of sustainable existence, some sort of coming to terms (Ernst ultimately finds a sort of peace via mindful/mystical communion with nature, lying down in the grass alone, just looking, listening, being), some not at all.
Lacks the drive and blatant high stakes of the other EMR novels I've read (I'm on a completist quest, FYI, and have five or six others on a shelf in order of publication ready to go this year). Almost started skimming midway but right when I started to think three-stars could devolve to two it picked-up and ended tremendously. As always with EMR, what's triggered completism, there are moments of extreme vividness, up there with Prince Andrei on his back looking at blue sky, Proust's elevating airplane, Leopold Bloom's kidney sliding in his frying pan, Bartlebooth's watercolors returning to the ocean, etc: in this, it's a war veteran sheep dog named Wolf fighting with the farmer's bulldog Pluto and then later doing what he's been bred to do, excelling at herding sheep although he was raised on the battlefield (Wolf's road back is hard-wired); or when the comrades run to the square with their "faces of the trench" as the military led by a former comrade threatens to turn a machine gun on a crowd of labor protestors led by a former Jewish comrade; or a scene at an official military-sanctioned brothel when Ernst the narrator loses his virginity; the classroom scene when the young veteran students revolt against the principal's fine phrases of heroism and again at the end the courtroom scene when the comrades rise up against the judge and lawyer in defense of their friend's murder of a man who'd been macking on a woman who'd been his only beacon through it all.
Was worried about this one and a little disappointed until page 180 or so but from now on I'll be completely confident that EMR will deliver. He was dramatizing boredom and dissatisfaction, which always makes what follows all the better, although in this it felt like it went on a few dozen pages too long and wasn't sufficiently concentrated?
But generally this is another great EMR novel -- since it's about PTSD (well before the term was coined), it lacks the sense that death could visit with every turned page, but a worthwhile way to spend two long sittings today at jury duty. Always stretches of top-notch translated prose, although in this the translation, especially in dialogue, occasionally seemed wonky thanks most likely to old German slang rendered as old British slang. Also interesting in that it was published in 1931, so before the rise of the forces that would wreck everything hundreds of times over in a decade or so (no lessons in this learned at all) -- those young students of Ernst's would grow up to be in their 30s during WWII and the teens at the end gleefully performing military exercises and calling WWI veterans cowards and traitors to The Fatherland foreshadow what's to come. Hunger and inflation are only touched on.
Generally, I think I'm interested in this era for reasons related to rising fascism worldwide and Trumpism, seeing our own times through the perspective of 80-100 years ago in Europe, the general sense of HEFT that runs through these novels that always elevates the prose (translated German is probably my favorite flavor in the English language), but also because I'm searching for Bolano's sources for the Hans Reiter section in 2666.
Here's a quotation representative of theme and translation (although the language in this bit is a little elevated since Ernst is waxing significantly) from right before he decides he can't be a schoolteacher:
Lacks the drive and blatant high stakes of the other EMR novels I've read (I'm on a completist quest, FYI, and have five or six others on a shelf in order of publication ready to go this year). Almost started skimming midway but right when I started to think three-stars could devolve to two it picked-up and ended tremendously. As always with EMR, what's triggered completism, there are moments of extreme vividness, up there with Prince Andrei on his back looking at blue sky, Proust's elevating airplane, Leopold Bloom's kidney sliding in his frying pan, Bartlebooth's watercolors returning to the ocean, etc: in this, it's a war veteran sheep dog named Wolf fighting with the farmer's bulldog Pluto and then later doing what he's been bred to do, excelling at herding sheep although he was raised on the battlefield (Wolf's road back is hard-wired); or when the comrades run to the square with their "faces of the trench" as the military led by a former comrade threatens to turn a machine gun on a crowd of labor protestors led by a former Jewish comrade; or a scene at an official military-sanctioned brothel when Ernst the narrator loses his virginity; the classroom scene when the young veteran students revolt against the principal's fine phrases of heroism and again at the end the courtroom scene when the comrades rise up against the judge and lawyer in defense of their friend's murder of a man who'd been macking on a woman who'd been his only beacon through it all.
Was worried about this one and a little disappointed until page 180 or so but from now on I'll be completely confident that EMR will deliver. He was dramatizing boredom and dissatisfaction, which always makes what follows all the better, although in this it felt like it went on a few dozen pages too long and wasn't sufficiently concentrated?
But generally this is another great EMR novel -- since it's about PTSD (well before the term was coined), it lacks the sense that death could visit with every turned page, but a worthwhile way to spend two long sittings today at jury duty. Always stretches of top-notch translated prose, although in this the translation, especially in dialogue, occasionally seemed wonky thanks most likely to old German slang rendered as old British slang. Also interesting in that it was published in 1931, so before the rise of the forces that would wreck everything hundreds of times over in a decade or so (no lessons in this learned at all) -- those young students of Ernst's would grow up to be in their 30s during WWII and the teens at the end gleefully performing military exercises and calling WWI veterans cowards and traitors to The Fatherland foreshadow what's to come. Hunger and inflation are only touched on.
Generally, I think I'm interested in this era for reasons related to rising fascism worldwide and Trumpism, seeing our own times through the perspective of 80-100 years ago in Europe, the general sense of HEFT that runs through these novels that always elevates the prose (translated German is probably my favorite flavor in the English language), but also because I'm searching for Bolano's sources for the Hans Reiter section in 2666.
Here's a quotation representative of theme and translation (although the language in this bit is a little elevated since Ernst is waxing significantly) from right before he decides he can't be a schoolteacher:
"What am I able to teach you then? Should I tell you how to pull the string on a hand grenade, how best to throw it at a human being? . . . Should I mimic how a man with a stomach wound will groan, how one with a lung wound gurgles and one with a head wound whistles? More I do not know. More I have not learned.
Should I take you to the brown-and-green map there, move my finger across it and tell you that here love was murdered? Should I explain to you that the books you hold in your hands are but nets with which men design to snare your simple souls, to entangle you in the undergrowth of fine phrases, and in the barbed wire of falsified ideas?
I stand here before you, a polluted, a guilty man and can only implore you ever to remain as you are, never to suffer the bright light of your childhood to be misused as a blow flame of hate. About your brows still blows the breath of innocence. How then should I presume to teach you? Behind me, still pursuing, are the bloody years. -- How then can I venture among you? Must I not first become a man again myself?"
January 5, 2018
L'ho riletto dopo tanti anni, in una nuova traduzione. Mi piacque molto allora, mi è piaciuto molto oggi. Sempre una gran lettura, Remarque non tradisce.
È giorno. Entro in classe. I piccoli sono lì seduti, a mani giunte. Nei loro occhioni c’è ancora tutto il timido stupore degli anni infantili. Mi guardano tanto fiduciosi, con tanta devozione, che mi provocano un colpo al cuore.
Eccomi davanti a voi, uno dei centomila falliti ai quali la guerra ha infranto ogni fede e quasi ogni energia... Sono davanti a voi e mi rendo conto di quanto siete più vivi e più legati alla vita. Sono davanti a voi e dovrei esservi maestro e guida. Ma che cosa vi devo insegnare? Devo dirvi che fra vent’anni sarete inariditi e mutilati, atrofizzati nei vostri istinti più spontanei, ridotti senza pietà a merce avariata? Devo spiegarvi che tutta la cultura, tutta la civiltà, tutta la scienza non sono che uno scherno orrendo fintanto che ci sono uomini che si fanno la guerra col gas e col ferro, con la polvere e col fuoco, in nome di Dio e dell’umanità? Che cosa devo insegnarvi, piccole creature, a voi, le uniche che siete rimaste pure in questi anni terribili?
È giorno. Entro in classe. I piccoli sono lì seduti, a mani giunte. Nei loro occhioni c’è ancora tutto il timido stupore degli anni infantili. Mi guardano tanto fiduciosi, con tanta devozione, che mi provocano un colpo al cuore.
Eccomi davanti a voi, uno dei centomila falliti ai quali la guerra ha infranto ogni fede e quasi ogni energia... Sono davanti a voi e mi rendo conto di quanto siete più vivi e più legati alla vita. Sono davanti a voi e dovrei esservi maestro e guida. Ma che cosa vi devo insegnare? Devo dirvi che fra vent’anni sarete inariditi e mutilati, atrofizzati nei vostri istinti più spontanei, ridotti senza pietà a merce avariata? Devo spiegarvi che tutta la cultura, tutta la civiltà, tutta la scienza non sono che uno scherno orrendo fintanto che ci sono uomini che si fanno la guerra col gas e col ferro, con la polvere e col fuoco, in nome di Dio e dell’umanità? Che cosa devo insegnarvi, piccole creature, a voi, le uniche che siete rimaste pure in questi anni terribili?
November 18, 2020
Izgleda da je Remark od onih autora koji ne može da me razočara. Ili je rano što mu dajem toliko poverenja nakon treće knjige?
Na Zapadu ništa novo je s pravom najbolja ratna/antiratna knjiga dvadesetog veka. Trijumfalna kapija je suptilnija, treba joj duže da ti se uvuče pod kožu. Opet, dobar je znak da sam je čitao pre 5 godina, a i dalje osetim atmosferu Pariza pred početak 2. svetskog rata, težinu odluka nemačkog lekara. Skoro da osetim ukus kalvadosa u ustima...
Povratak vraća Remarka na autobiografsko - mladići se vraćaju kući nakon kapitulacije u Velikom ratu. Ljudi koji su "izbegli pakao i vraćaju se u život". Ovo je morao da napiše neko ko je to proživeo.
"Možda se rat stalno ponavlja samo zbog toga što jedan nikad ne može sasvim da oseti ono što drugi pati."
Ali povratnike čeka drugačiji svet. Drugačiji su i oni. Umesto dece koja su otišla u rat, pre nego što su isprobali ljubav ili život, vrtaćaju se cinični muškarci, iznureni frontom i smrću.
"Čudnovato je to: toliko smo navikli na jame i rovove da najednom postajemo podozrivi prema tišini predela u koji sada dolazimo, - kao da je tišina izgovor da nas namame na potajno minirano područje..."
Roditelji ih ne prepoznaju, a oni ne mogu da se uklope u društvo koje ne razume da su voleli život na frontu - živeli su život bez kočnica, bez pretvaranja, bez klasnih razlika.
"Saopštavaju mi, dalje, šta se desilo od mog poslednjeg dopusta. Kasapina sa ugla su skoro pretukle gladne žene. Jedared, koncem avgusta, dobila je svaka porodica celu funtu ribe. Uhvatili su psa doktora Knota i verovatno skuvali sapun. Gospođica Mentrup je dobila dete. Krompir je opet poskupeo. Iduće nedelje možda če se moći dobiti kosti na klanici. Prošlog meseca se udala tetka Gretina druga ćerka i to za ritmajstera... Napolju lupa kiša u okna. Ja skupljam ramena. Čudno je opet sedeti. Čudno je opet biti kod kuće.
- Pa ti i ne slušaš, Ernest..."
Direktor škole u čije klupe ti prekaljeni borci treba da se vrate, drži dirljiv govor o poginulim pitomcima te škole, koji spavaju večnim snom pod zelenom travom. Odgovor jednog od njih opisuje atmosferu Povratka u par rečenica:
U tom času začu se kratak smeh. Direktor, neprijatno dirnut, zastade. Smeh dolazi od Vilija, koji stoji blizu njega. U licu je kao rak crven od besa, i muca:
- Zelena trava... zelena trava... večni san? U blatu po jamama leže oni, izrešetani, iskidani, potonuli u baruštine. Zelena trava! Nismo valjda na času pevanja.
Mlatara rukama kao vetrenjača u buri, i nastavlja:
- Junačka smrt! Kako zamišljate to! Hoćete li da znate kako je umro mali Hojer? Ceo dan je ležao u žicama i vikao, a creva su mu visila iz trbuha kao makarone. Onda mu je parče granate odnelo prste i posle dva sata komad noge, a još je bio živ i pokušavao drugom rukom da ugura svoju utrobu. Najzad je, uveče, svršio. Kada smo posle, noću, uspeli da mu se približimo, bio je izrešetan kao rešeto. De, pričajte njegovoj majci kako je umro, ako imate hrabrosti.
Direktor je pobledeo. Lomi se da li da očuva disciplinu ili da beži. Ali nema vremena ni za jedno ni za drugo, jer Albert Troske odmah prihvati:
"Gospodine direktore, mi nismo došli ovamo da slušamo kako smo dobro obavili naš posao, iako, nažalost, nismo mogli pobediti. Seremo mi na to..."
Na Zapadu ništa novo je s pravom najbolja ratna/antiratna knjiga dvadesetog veka. Trijumfalna kapija je suptilnija, treba joj duže da ti se uvuče pod kožu. Opet, dobar je znak da sam je čitao pre 5 godina, a i dalje osetim atmosferu Pariza pred početak 2. svetskog rata, težinu odluka nemačkog lekara. Skoro da osetim ukus kalvadosa u ustima...
Povratak vraća Remarka na autobiografsko - mladići se vraćaju kući nakon kapitulacije u Velikom ratu. Ljudi koji su "izbegli pakao i vraćaju se u život". Ovo je morao da napiše neko ko je to proživeo.
"Možda se rat stalno ponavlja samo zbog toga što jedan nikad ne može sasvim da oseti ono što drugi pati."
Ali povratnike čeka drugačiji svet. Drugačiji su i oni. Umesto dece koja su otišla u rat, pre nego što su isprobali ljubav ili život, vrtaćaju se cinični muškarci, iznureni frontom i smrću.
"Čudnovato je to: toliko smo navikli na jame i rovove da najednom postajemo podozrivi prema tišini predela u koji sada dolazimo, - kao da je tišina izgovor da nas namame na potajno minirano područje..."
Roditelji ih ne prepoznaju, a oni ne mogu da se uklope u društvo koje ne razume da su voleli život na frontu - živeli su život bez kočnica, bez pretvaranja, bez klasnih razlika.
"Saopštavaju mi, dalje, šta se desilo od mog poslednjeg dopusta. Kasapina sa ugla su skoro pretukle gladne žene. Jedared, koncem avgusta, dobila je svaka porodica celu funtu ribe. Uhvatili su psa doktora Knota i verovatno skuvali sapun. Gospođica Mentrup je dobila dete. Krompir je opet poskupeo. Iduće nedelje možda če se moći dobiti kosti na klanici. Prošlog meseca se udala tetka Gretina druga ćerka i to za ritmajstera... Napolju lupa kiša u okna. Ja skupljam ramena. Čudno je opet sedeti. Čudno je opet biti kod kuće.
- Pa ti i ne slušaš, Ernest..."
Direktor škole u čije klupe ti prekaljeni borci treba da se vrate, drži dirljiv govor o poginulim pitomcima te škole, koji spavaju večnim snom pod zelenom travom. Odgovor jednog od njih opisuje atmosferu Povratka u par rečenica:
U tom času začu se kratak smeh. Direktor, neprijatno dirnut, zastade. Smeh dolazi od Vilija, koji stoji blizu njega. U licu je kao rak crven od besa, i muca:
- Zelena trava... zelena trava... večni san? U blatu po jamama leže oni, izrešetani, iskidani, potonuli u baruštine. Zelena trava! Nismo valjda na času pevanja.
Mlatara rukama kao vetrenjača u buri, i nastavlja:
- Junačka smrt! Kako zamišljate to! Hoćete li da znate kako je umro mali Hojer? Ceo dan je ležao u žicama i vikao, a creva su mu visila iz trbuha kao makarone. Onda mu je parče granate odnelo prste i posle dva sata komad noge, a još je bio živ i pokušavao drugom rukom da ugura svoju utrobu. Najzad je, uveče, svršio. Kada smo posle, noću, uspeli da mu se približimo, bio je izrešetan kao rešeto. De, pričajte njegovoj majci kako je umro, ako imate hrabrosti.
Direktor je pobledeo. Lomi se da li da očuva disciplinu ili da beži. Ali nema vremena ni za jedno ni za drugo, jer Albert Troske odmah prihvati:
"Gospodine direktore, mi nismo došli ovamo da slušamo kako smo dobro obavili naš posao, iako, nažalost, nismo mogli pobediti. Seremo mi na to..."
December 11, 2017
Es ist für mich das bisher am schwersten verdauliche Buch Remarques.
Erneut habe ich dutzende Passagen unterstrichen und für mich kommentiert, in denen meines Erachtens Wahrheit und Tiefgang stecken. Remarque leiht den zurückgekommenen Soldaten, die als Jugendliche in den Krieg gezogen sind, seine Stimme und konfrontiert die verantwortlichen Stellen mit deren verlorenen Jugend, ihrer unerträglichen Gegenwart und einer scheinbar hoffnungslosen Zukunft.
Remarque weiß wovon er schreibt, war er schließlich selbst mit 18 Jahren in den Krieg eingezogen und Zeuge des Tötens auf oberen Befehl für das Vaterland und die anschließende Rückkehr zum alltäglichen Leben oder besser, der Versuch in einen Alltag zurückzufinden, der nach den Fronterlebnissen keinen Sinn mehr macht. Familie, Nachbarn, Lehrer verstehen nicht den Zustand, in dem sich die Rückkehrer befinden und der sie quält ("Es ist alles umsonst, Ernst. Wir sind kaputt, aber die Welt geht weiter, als wenn der Krieg nicht da gewesen wäre.").
Umsonst warten die jungen Männer auf die versöhnlichen Worte: "Wir haben alle furchtbar geirrt! Wir wollen gemeinsam zurückfinden! Habt Mut!" Stattdessen sehen sie sich mit den Erwartungen konfrontiert, alles zu vergessen, geregelte Arbeit zu finden und sich wieder der staatlichen Ordnung anzupassen. Dies wird besonders in der Gerichtsverhandlung deutlich. Albert hat den Geliebten seiner Freundin erschossen. Seine Freunde klagen die Obrigkeit an! - Eine der ganz großen Szenen für mich!
Der erste ergreifende Augenblick war für mich jedoch die Passage, in der Ernst zu seiner Familie zurückkehrt und einen Moment mit seiner Mutter allein im Treppenhaus steht:
"Sie beugt sich über das Geländer. Ihr kleines zerfurchtes Gesicht ist golden beschattet vom Lampenschirm. Unwirklich wehen die Schatten und Lichter hinter ihr über den Flur. Und plötzlich schwankt etwas in mir, eine seltsame Rührung packt mich, fast wie ein Schmerz - als gäbe es nichts auf der Welt als dieses Gesicht, als wäre ich wieder ein Kind, dem man auf der Treppe leuchten muss, ein Junge, dem auf der Straße etwas geschehen kann, und alles andere dazwischen nur Spuk und Traum. -
Aber das Licht der Lampe fängt sich zu einem scharfen Reflex in meinem Koppelschloss. Die Sekunde verfliegt, ich bin kein Kind, ich trage eine Uniform. Rasch springe ich die Treppe hinunter, immer drei Stufen auf einmal, und stoße die Haustür auf, begierig, zu meinen Kameraden zu kommen."
In jeder Szene steckt ein hohes Maß an Bewegung, sei es äußerlich oder nur innerlich. Remarque gibt dem Leser keine Ruhe, schont ihn nicht, sondern zieht ihn durch das Gefühlschaos seiner Protagonisten mit. So schildert er die Freitode von Ludwig und Georg detailliert. Allerdings in einer poetischen, beeindruckend ästhetischen Art. Er beraubt sie grausam ihres jungen Lebens und bettet sie sanft. Hier greift sie wieder, seine gewohnt schnörkellose Sprache, die gewaltige Bilder vor unseren Auge entstehen lässt, das Innere aufwühlt, ja ergreift und eine Wahrheit herauskatapultiert, die so groß und komplex ist, dass es mich nicht wundert, dass der Roman 1931 wie eine Bombe auf deutschen Boden schlug und heftig kritisiert wurde. Wie es Remarque so trefflich in einer Freitodszene formuliert "Das Schweigen beginnt zu reden." -
Es ist ein wichtiges Buch und die notwendige wie gelungene Fortsetzung von "Im Westen nichts Neues". Schade, dass dies damals von der Mehrheit der deutschen Bevölkerung nicht wahrgenommen und erkannt wurde, verbirgt Remarque in seinen Text sogar eine Begebenheit, die geradezu prophetisch ist. Während Ernst und seine Kameraden vor einem Waldstück sitzen, durchstößt plötzlich eine Gruppe minderjähriger Jungen das Gebüsch und übt Krieg, angeleitet von einem Erwachsenen, den er wiederholt als "Führer" betitelt.
Ich ziehe erneut meinen Hut vor diesen großartigen Schriftsteller.
Erneut habe ich dutzende Passagen unterstrichen und für mich kommentiert, in denen meines Erachtens Wahrheit und Tiefgang stecken. Remarque leiht den zurückgekommenen Soldaten, die als Jugendliche in den Krieg gezogen sind, seine Stimme und konfrontiert die verantwortlichen Stellen mit deren verlorenen Jugend, ihrer unerträglichen Gegenwart und einer scheinbar hoffnungslosen Zukunft.
Remarque weiß wovon er schreibt, war er schließlich selbst mit 18 Jahren in den Krieg eingezogen und Zeuge des Tötens auf oberen Befehl für das Vaterland und die anschließende Rückkehr zum alltäglichen Leben oder besser, der Versuch in einen Alltag zurückzufinden, der nach den Fronterlebnissen keinen Sinn mehr macht. Familie, Nachbarn, Lehrer verstehen nicht den Zustand, in dem sich die Rückkehrer befinden und der sie quält ("Es ist alles umsonst, Ernst. Wir sind kaputt, aber die Welt geht weiter, als wenn der Krieg nicht da gewesen wäre.").
Umsonst warten die jungen Männer auf die versöhnlichen Worte: "Wir haben alle furchtbar geirrt! Wir wollen gemeinsam zurückfinden! Habt Mut!" Stattdessen sehen sie sich mit den Erwartungen konfrontiert, alles zu vergessen, geregelte Arbeit zu finden und sich wieder der staatlichen Ordnung anzupassen. Dies wird besonders in der Gerichtsverhandlung deutlich. Albert hat den Geliebten seiner Freundin erschossen. Seine Freunde klagen die Obrigkeit an! - Eine der ganz großen Szenen für mich!
Der erste ergreifende Augenblick war für mich jedoch die Passage, in der Ernst zu seiner Familie zurückkehrt und einen Moment mit seiner Mutter allein im Treppenhaus steht:
"Sie beugt sich über das Geländer. Ihr kleines zerfurchtes Gesicht ist golden beschattet vom Lampenschirm. Unwirklich wehen die Schatten und Lichter hinter ihr über den Flur. Und plötzlich schwankt etwas in mir, eine seltsame Rührung packt mich, fast wie ein Schmerz - als gäbe es nichts auf der Welt als dieses Gesicht, als wäre ich wieder ein Kind, dem man auf der Treppe leuchten muss, ein Junge, dem auf der Straße etwas geschehen kann, und alles andere dazwischen nur Spuk und Traum. -
Aber das Licht der Lampe fängt sich zu einem scharfen Reflex in meinem Koppelschloss. Die Sekunde verfliegt, ich bin kein Kind, ich trage eine Uniform. Rasch springe ich die Treppe hinunter, immer drei Stufen auf einmal, und stoße die Haustür auf, begierig, zu meinen Kameraden zu kommen."
In jeder Szene steckt ein hohes Maß an Bewegung, sei es äußerlich oder nur innerlich. Remarque gibt dem Leser keine Ruhe, schont ihn nicht, sondern zieht ihn durch das Gefühlschaos seiner Protagonisten mit. So schildert er die Freitode von Ludwig und Georg detailliert. Allerdings in einer poetischen, beeindruckend ästhetischen Art. Er beraubt sie grausam ihres jungen Lebens und bettet sie sanft. Hier greift sie wieder, seine gewohnt schnörkellose Sprache, die gewaltige Bilder vor unseren Auge entstehen lässt, das Innere aufwühlt, ja ergreift und eine Wahrheit herauskatapultiert, die so groß und komplex ist, dass es mich nicht wundert, dass der Roman 1931 wie eine Bombe auf deutschen Boden schlug und heftig kritisiert wurde. Wie es Remarque so trefflich in einer Freitodszene formuliert "Das Schweigen beginnt zu reden." -
Es ist ein wichtiges Buch und die notwendige wie gelungene Fortsetzung von "Im Westen nichts Neues". Schade, dass dies damals von der Mehrheit der deutschen Bevölkerung nicht wahrgenommen und erkannt wurde, verbirgt Remarque in seinen Text sogar eine Begebenheit, die geradezu prophetisch ist. Während Ernst und seine Kameraden vor einem Waldstück sitzen, durchstößt plötzlich eine Gruppe minderjähriger Jungen das Gebüsch und übt Krieg, angeleitet von einem Erwachsenen, den er wiederholt als "Führer" betitelt.
Ich ziehe erneut meinen Hut vor diesen großartigen Schriftsteller.
September 9, 2023
Review to come when I'm back in the groove, for now I'm just glad I finally managed to read a book again. (Have been in a massive reading slump for over two years now - not because of this book, this was great!)
June 10, 2013
The Road Back: http://readwithstyle.wordpress.com/20...
I am quite astonished that The Road Back is much less known than its famous prequel All Quiet on the Western Front. For me The Road Back is a heartbreaking story, that left me crying myself quietly to sleep in the middle of the night. In All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque was not quite himself – the author I know for dissecting human relationships and for philosophizing about life and love. Instead he was focused exclusively on the grotesqueness, violence and fatuity of war that leaves young men physically and emotionally crippled.
In The Road Back Erich Maria Remarque is again the author I fell in love with. The story begins during the last few days of WWI, a short time after All Quiet on the Western Front ended. Although it doesn’t feature the same characters (with the exception of Tjaden) in The Road Back many of the soldiers from All Quiet on the Western Front are mentioned…but they are already dead.
Read more: http://readwithstyle.wordpress.com/20...
I am quite astonished that The Road Back is much less known than its famous prequel All Quiet on the Western Front. For me The Road Back is a heartbreaking story, that left me crying myself quietly to sleep in the middle of the night. In All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque was not quite himself – the author I know for dissecting human relationships and for philosophizing about life and love. Instead he was focused exclusively on the grotesqueness, violence and fatuity of war that leaves young men physically and emotionally crippled.
In The Road Back Erich Maria Remarque is again the author I fell in love with. The story begins during the last few days of WWI, a short time after All Quiet on the Western Front ended. Although it doesn’t feature the same characters (with the exception of Tjaden) in The Road Back many of the soldiers from All Quiet on the Western Front are mentioned…but they are already dead.
Read more: http://readwithstyle.wordpress.com/20...
June 15, 2022
Another Remarque classic, another One of the All-time Greatest novels I've ever read. This is THE ABSOLUTE PERFECT followup to the epic greatness of the story of All Quiet on the Western Front. A must read for anyone who ever heard of World War 1-2, or ever had a friend, or just ever read even a single book!
July 8, 2009
This is the sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front, and it may be more quietly powerful. There are some of the snippets of gruesome battle scenes, but this book that takes place after World War I shows the soldiers disillusioned with the war's purpose, alienated from their friends and life before the war and adrift when they try to resume their lives at home. Trained as soldiers in a brutal war, they have a hard time finding their place in society and find themselves missing the camaraderie of their fellow soldiers.
September 24, 2019
The Road Back is the sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front. They are both dramatic (in a good way) and eye-opening. Where All Quiet in the Western Front is a bit more brutal and shows us life at the Front, The Road Back is more subtle and gives us a glimpse of the emotional side of coming back from WW1 as a young man.
Really one of the best books I read so far!
Really one of the best books I read so far!
October 16, 2021
“Искам да размърдам ръцете и мислите си, да не си придавам важност и да вървя напред дори ако понякога ми се прииска да спра… Колко просто е всичко, но колко време ми бе необходимо, за да стигна до него… Днес зная, че всичко в живота вероятно е подготовка и труд на всеки по отделно, в множество клетки, в множество жилки- и както клетките и жилките на дървото трябва само да приемат и предават по-нагоре напиращия сок, така и от този труд навярно ще се роди… свобода.”
Макар и да ми се стори леко неподредена на моменти винаги бих оценила високо всяка книга, която ме разплаква, трогва и променя мъничко.
:)))
Макар и да ми се стори леко неподредена на моменти винаги бих оценила високо всяка книга, която ме разплаква, трогва и променя мъничко.
:)))
August 6, 2013
I read Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front many years ago. I re-read it while travelling through Europe and wanted to read more of his novels. I heard about the Road Back in an article about Kevin Power's brilliant Yellow Birds, a novel about the Gulf War.
There are a lot of novels about the First World War, but very few books about the experience of returning soldiers. The Road Back poignantly captures the difficult task returned soldiers face of reintegrating into society after years of war. Many of the characters in the novel went to war during the later stages of their formative years and know very little of the life outside of the trenches. Moreover, the main character attempts to capture his lost youth by taking a trip to the country but all he can think of is ideal locations for a machine gun placement. He drifts aimlessly and struggles to find a place in society, failing as a school teacher and returning to his parents house.
The society they return to also struggles to accommodate them, even though they have sacrificed so much for the supposed greater good of their country. I've read that this is a problem faced by many of our own returned servicemen from equally futile wars (Iraq and Afghanistan).
In 2014 we will commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. I know in my own country, Australia, the senseless slaughter has been replaced with a chest-thumping jingoism. I think this is ultimately dangerous and perhaps these fanatics who 'pilgrimage' to Gallipoli should read Remarque, Graves, Owen, Sassoon, Barbuesse and realise that the there was nothing noble or glorious about the pointless slaughter of the First World War.
There are a lot of novels about the First World War, but very few books about the experience of returning soldiers. The Road Back poignantly captures the difficult task returned soldiers face of reintegrating into society after years of war. Many of the characters in the novel went to war during the later stages of their formative years and know very little of the life outside of the trenches. Moreover, the main character attempts to capture his lost youth by taking a trip to the country but all he can think of is ideal locations for a machine gun placement. He drifts aimlessly and struggles to find a place in society, failing as a school teacher and returning to his parents house.
The society they return to also struggles to accommodate them, even though they have sacrificed so much for the supposed greater good of their country. I've read that this is a problem faced by many of our own returned servicemen from equally futile wars (Iraq and Afghanistan).
In 2014 we will commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. I know in my own country, Australia, the senseless slaughter has been replaced with a chest-thumping jingoism. I think this is ultimately dangerous and perhaps these fanatics who 'pilgrimage' to Gallipoli should read Remarque, Graves, Owen, Sassoon, Barbuesse and realise that the there was nothing noble or glorious about the pointless slaughter of the First World War.
December 22, 2016
Вечерта на 5 декември, 1930 г. Зала „Моцарт“ в Берлин е препълнена от нетърпеливи зрители, дошли да гледат премиерата на най-новата холивудска продукция. Докато тече прожекцията, в залата нахлуват около 150 щурмоваци с кафяви ризи, водени от небезизвестния пропагандатор д-р Йозеф Гьобелс. Те хвърлят миризливи бомбички в салона, разпръскват лютив прах и дори пускат бели мишки измежду столовете, докато крещят антисемитски лозунги. В настъпилия хаос някои от присъстващите са налагани с палки, защото изглеждали като евреи. Филмът, предизвикал подобен скандал, е „На Западния фронт нищо ново“, екранизация за 1.25 милиона долара по излязлата година по-рано книга на Ерих Мария Ремарк.
Само три години по-късно на власт идват националсоциалистите, Гьобелс става министър на пропагандата, а книгите на Ремарк са горени публично на клади в цялата страна. Нещо повече – притежанието на „На Западния фронт нищо ново“ или продължението й, „Обратният път“, е обявено извън закона.
Ревю: https://bibliotekata.wordpress.com/20...
Само три години по-късно на власт идват националсоциалистите, Гьобелс става министър на пропагандата, а книгите на Ремарк са горени публично на клади в цялата страна. Нещо повече – притежанието на „На Западния фронт нищо ново“ или продължението й, „Обратният път“, е обявено извън закона.
Ревю: https://bibliotekata.wordpress.com/20...
May 18, 2022
Liệu hoà bình có phải là những nốt nhạc vui, là khúc ca khải hoàn cho những người lính không? Hay là họ lại trở về trong một cuộc chiến khác, một cuộc sống của nội tâm, của mưu sinh và của sự lạc lõng? Chiến tranh cứ chồng lên nhau năm này qua năm khác với hy vọng vĩnh viễn thoát khỏi các cuộc chiến luôn thường trực. Thế mà giờ phút cận kề hoà bình cũng trở nên thật nặng nề cho tất cả. Mỗi ngày trôi qua trong cuộc chiến, số người đã hy sinh luôn đông hơn và số người được trở về lại vắng đi. Bởi vì trong chiến tranh, cái chết là điều tất yếu, không ai cho phép mình vì nỗi đau mà chùn bước. Nhưng rồi khi dứt tiếng súng để trả lại hoà bình, điều họ nhận lại chỉ là những tâm tư triền miên và những ký ức không thể nào xoá sạch.
Họ - những người lính còn sống sót trở về hẳn nhiên là những người lính ưu tú với phù hiệu trên áo và kinh nghiệm trên từng centimet cơ thể. Họ vẫn là những chàng thanh niên đầy rẫy tò mò, ham muốn. Họ trao đổi những vật dụng chiến tranh một cách hồn nhiên với kẻ thù, họ giành giật nhau từng chỗ trên chuyến tàu về nhà để rồi một số phải tử nạn trên nóc toa tàu. Những tấm băng vết thương dính máu đổi bánh xà phòng thơm hay điếu thuốc, những hân hoan gặp lại người thân đổi bằng mạng sống ngay thời khắc đầu của hoà bình. Đường về ngay trước mắt đó nhưng cũng vẫn là một chặng đường của vật lý và của cả cảm xúc lẫn lộn không thể tỏ bày: “Thành phố nằm đó, thở dồn trong ánh sáng man dại của những tia chớp, và chúng tôi lao vào nó trên đoàn tàu chở lính, đoàn tàu hồi hương từ chốn hư không, đoàn tàu của nỗi mong chờ lớn lao, gần nữa, gần hơn nữa…”
Họ, chia tay ở sân ga, mỗi người một hướng về nhà. Sự đoàn tụ đâu hẳn như mong đợi khi mà mọi thứ đã trở nên lạ lẫm và bỡ ngỡ đến nỗi họ không tin rằng mình đã thực sự trở về nhà. Lẽ ra những gương mặt người thân, những tiếng nói cười thân yêu, những bữa ăn ấm cúng sẽ xoa dịu những năm tháng gian khó nơi họ nhưng không! họ chỉ muốn ở một mình, được nghiền ngẫm những ngày đã qua, họ mơ về đồng đội, về tình đồng chí, về những âm thanh rát tai quen thuộc của súng đạn. Với họ, chiến tranh đã hằn sâu trong từng lớp xương tuỷ. Sự yên lặng quá mức, sự bất động trong không gian nhỏ hẹp khiến họ đánh mất bản năng của mình. Việc hoà nhập trở lại với trường lớp cũng vô cùng khó khăn vì họ hầu như quên hết mình đã từng được học gì. Nhìn ngắm khung cảnh bình yên của làng quê mà cũng chỉ nhớ tới chiến hào. Họ lao vào những thú vui đã bị tước mất trong chiến tranh với rượu, thuốc lá, với gái điếm để rồi nhận ra tất cả đều vô vị và chẳng có giá trị gì, thậm chí phải trả giá bằng những cuộc ẩu đả và tù tội.. Họ đi săn thực phẩm, rủ nhau lang thang khắp các ga tàu, con phố để ôn lại tình đồng đội nhưng có vẻ như tình đồng đội đang dần mất đi và thay thế bằng những lợi ích cá nhân, họ cố vớt vát thật nhanh những gì có thể từ cuộc sống. Trong số họ, có người ám ảnh bởi quá nhiều vết thương tâm hồn và sự mất mát của đồng đội mà phải vào nhà thương điên. Dù họ vẫn nhận ra tất cả những gương mặt còn lại nhưng không thể chống lại những cơn ác mộng.
“Tôi không hiểu vì sao mình đang đứng đây và không còn cảm thấy giống như đã từng cảm thấy ngày nào dưới những hố bom và trong những lều trú quân. Đâu rồi sự trọn vẹn của những rung động, tươi sáng, hào quang và cảm xúc dâng trào không thể gọi tên? Phải chăng nó đã trở thành hiện thực, khi mà nó lui về và co rúm lại cho tới lúc chẳng còn gì ngoài một cái khung trần trụi mà trên đó đã có thời những lá cờ rực rỡ tung bay? Phải chăng nó đã tách khỏi thực tế và lúc này chỉ còn bồng bềnh trôi như một đám mây buồn trên đó? Có phải những năm chiến tranh đã thiêu trụi cây cầu trở về quá khứ? Rất nhiều câu hỏi nhưng không lời giải đáp…”
Chiến tranh không chỉ huỷ diệt tuổi trẻ, nó lấy đi nơi những người lính sự bình an trong tâm hồn. Sự tuyên dương chủ nghĩa anh hùng chẳng có nghĩa lý gì khi họ phải đối mặt với những con người xảo quyệt lật lọng, của thói gièm pha đặt điều, của tranh giành quyền lợi, của sự nhàm chán với cuộc sống vô công rồi nghề và nhất là không được cất tiếng nói, không được bảo vệ. Dường như sự hy sinh những năm tháng tuổi trẻ đánh đổi lấy sự cô đơn và lạc lõng, bề dày kinh nghiệm chiến trường không đủ trấn áp những điều lệ phi lý từ kẻ có quyền. “Đường về” không phải là phép thử như trong chiến tranh nữa, nó hiện ra trước mắt một con đường vô định khi người ta vẫn đang sống rành rành, họ không trút bỏ màu áo lính, chỉ là nguỵ trang bởi chiếc áo giả tạo của hoà bình, một chiếc áo không bao giờ vừa vặn.
“Sẽ không phải là sự thành công mà chúng tôi từng mơ thời niên thiếu hay đã trông đợi bao nhiêu năm ngoài chiến trường. Sẽ chỉ là một con đường như bao con đường khác, cũng đầy sỏi đá và những quãng bằng phẳng, những chỗ sụt lở, cũng đi qua làng mạc và những cánh đồng - con đường của lao động. Tôi sẽ đơn độc. Có lẽ thi thoảng tôi sẽ tìn được ai đó cùng đi với mình một quãng đường…nhưng chắc hẳn không phải là vĩnh viễn. Có thể tôi thường xuyên vẫn phải nâng ba lô lên khi đôi vai đã mỏi; có thể tôi sẽ còn thường xuyên do dự trước những ngã rẽ và đường biên, sẽ phải bỏ lại phía sau nhiều thứ, và sẽ vấp, sẽ ngã… nhưng tôi muốn lại đứng lên chứ không nằm gục, muốn bước tiếp chứ không quay đầu. Có lẽ tôi sẽ chẳng bao giờ còn có thể hạnh phúc hoàn toàn, có lẽ chiến tranh đã phá nó tan tành, và tôi sẽ luôn cảm thấy hơi lạc lõng, không có nơi nào thực sự là nhà… nhưng chắc hẳn tôi cũng sẽ không bao giờ hoàn toàn bất hạnh… vì sẽ luôn có thứ gì đó giữ cho tôi đứng vững, cho dù đó chỉ là chính đôi tay của tôi hay một cái cây, hay mặt đất đang thở.”
Erich Maria Remarque vẫn luôn nhiều cao trào, vẫn bền bỉ trong sức viết vô hạn của mình. Khó có một nhà văn nào khác có thể viết về chiến tranh tỉ mỉ, thấm thía mà có chiều sâu đến vậy. Chiến tranh không chỉ tước đi nhiều thứ, nó còn lấp đầy cả “đường về” bằng sự chơi vơi và lạc lõng, bằng sự vô định với cuộc đời.
Họ - những người lính còn sống sót trở về hẳn nhiên là những người lính ưu tú với phù hiệu trên áo và kinh nghiệm trên từng centimet cơ thể. Họ vẫn là những chàng thanh niên đầy rẫy tò mò, ham muốn. Họ trao đổi những vật dụng chiến tranh một cách hồn nhiên với kẻ thù, họ giành giật nhau từng chỗ trên chuyến tàu về nhà để rồi một số phải tử nạn trên nóc toa tàu. Những tấm băng vết thương dính máu đổi bánh xà phòng thơm hay điếu thuốc, những hân hoan gặp lại người thân đổi bằng mạng sống ngay thời khắc đầu của hoà bình. Đường về ngay trước mắt đó nhưng cũng vẫn là một chặng đường của vật lý và của cả cảm xúc lẫn lộn không thể tỏ bày: “Thành phố nằm đó, thở dồn trong ánh sáng man dại của những tia chớp, và chúng tôi lao vào nó trên đoàn tàu chở lính, đoàn tàu hồi hương từ chốn hư không, đoàn tàu của nỗi mong chờ lớn lao, gần nữa, gần hơn nữa…”
Họ, chia tay ở sân ga, mỗi người một hướng về nhà. Sự đoàn tụ đâu hẳn như mong đợi khi mà mọi thứ đã trở nên lạ lẫm và bỡ ngỡ đến nỗi họ không tin rằng mình đã thực sự trở về nhà. Lẽ ra những gương mặt người thân, những tiếng nói cười thân yêu, những bữa ăn ấm cúng sẽ xoa dịu những năm tháng gian khó nơi họ nhưng không! họ chỉ muốn ở một mình, được nghiền ngẫm những ngày đã qua, họ mơ về đồng đội, về tình đồng chí, về những âm thanh rát tai quen thuộc của súng đạn. Với họ, chiến tranh đã hằn sâu trong từng lớp xương tuỷ. Sự yên lặng quá mức, sự bất động trong không gian nhỏ hẹp khiến họ đánh mất bản năng của mình. Việc hoà nhập trở lại với trường lớp cũng vô cùng khó khăn vì họ hầu như quên hết mình đã từng được học gì. Nhìn ngắm khung cảnh bình yên của làng quê mà cũng chỉ nhớ tới chiến hào. Họ lao vào những thú vui đã bị tước mất trong chiến tranh với rượu, thuốc lá, với gái điếm để rồi nhận ra tất cả đều vô vị và chẳng có giá trị gì, thậm chí phải trả giá bằng những cuộc ẩu đả và tù tội.. Họ đi săn thực phẩm, rủ nhau lang thang khắp các ga tàu, con phố để ôn lại tình đồng đội nhưng có vẻ như tình đồng đội đang dần mất đi và thay thế bằng những lợi ích cá nhân, họ cố vớt vát thật nhanh những gì có thể từ cuộc sống. Trong số họ, có người ám ảnh bởi quá nhiều vết thương tâm hồn và sự mất mát của đồng đội mà phải vào nhà thương điên. Dù họ vẫn nhận ra tất cả những gương mặt còn lại nhưng không thể chống lại những cơn ác mộng.
“Tôi không hiểu vì sao mình đang đứng đây và không còn cảm thấy giống như đã từng cảm thấy ngày nào dưới những hố bom và trong những lều trú quân. Đâu rồi sự trọn vẹn của những rung động, tươi sáng, hào quang và cảm xúc dâng trào không thể gọi tên? Phải chăng nó đã trở thành hiện thực, khi mà nó lui về và co rúm lại cho tới lúc chẳng còn gì ngoài một cái khung trần trụi mà trên đó đã có thời những lá cờ rực rỡ tung bay? Phải chăng nó đã tách khỏi thực tế và lúc này chỉ còn bồng bềnh trôi như một đám mây buồn trên đó? Có phải những năm chiến tranh đã thiêu trụi cây cầu trở về quá khứ? Rất nhiều câu hỏi nhưng không lời giải đáp…”
Chiến tranh không chỉ huỷ diệt tuổi trẻ, nó lấy đi nơi những người lính sự bình an trong tâm hồn. Sự tuyên dương chủ nghĩa anh hùng chẳng có nghĩa lý gì khi họ phải đối mặt với những con người xảo quyệt lật lọng, của thói gièm pha đặt điều, của tranh giành quyền lợi, của sự nhàm chán với cuộc sống vô công rồi nghề và nhất là không được cất tiếng nói, không được bảo vệ. Dường như sự hy sinh những năm tháng tuổi trẻ đánh đổi lấy sự cô đơn và lạc lõng, bề dày kinh nghiệm chiến trường không đủ trấn áp những điều lệ phi lý từ kẻ có quyền. “Đường về” không phải là phép thử như trong chiến tranh nữa, nó hiện ra trước mắt một con đường vô định khi người ta vẫn đang sống rành rành, họ không trút bỏ màu áo lính, chỉ là nguỵ trang bởi chiếc áo giả tạo của hoà bình, một chiếc áo không bao giờ vừa vặn.
“Sẽ không phải là sự thành công mà chúng tôi từng mơ thời niên thiếu hay đã trông đợi bao nhiêu năm ngoài chiến trường. Sẽ chỉ là một con đường như bao con đường khác, cũng đầy sỏi đá và những quãng bằng phẳng, những chỗ sụt lở, cũng đi qua làng mạc và những cánh đồng - con đường của lao động. Tôi sẽ đơn độc. Có lẽ thi thoảng tôi sẽ tìn được ai đó cùng đi với mình một quãng đường…nhưng chắc hẳn không phải là vĩnh viễn. Có thể tôi thường xuyên vẫn phải nâng ba lô lên khi đôi vai đã mỏi; có thể tôi sẽ còn thường xuyên do dự trước những ngã rẽ và đường biên, sẽ phải bỏ lại phía sau nhiều thứ, và sẽ vấp, sẽ ngã… nhưng tôi muốn lại đứng lên chứ không nằm gục, muốn bước tiếp chứ không quay đầu. Có lẽ tôi sẽ chẳng bao giờ còn có thể hạnh phúc hoàn toàn, có lẽ chiến tranh đã phá nó tan tành, và tôi sẽ luôn cảm thấy hơi lạc lõng, không có nơi nào thực sự là nhà… nhưng chắc hẳn tôi cũng sẽ không bao giờ hoàn toàn bất hạnh… vì sẽ luôn có thứ gì đó giữ cho tôi đứng vững, cho dù đó chỉ là chính đôi tay của tôi hay một cái cây, hay mặt đất đang thở.”
Erich Maria Remarque vẫn luôn nhiều cao trào, vẫn bền bỉ trong sức viết vô hạn của mình. Khó có một nhà văn nào khác có thể viết về chiến tranh tỉ mỉ, thấm thía mà có chiều sâu đến vậy. Chiến tranh không chỉ tước đi nhiều thứ, nó còn lấp đầy cả “đường về” bằng sự chơi vơi và lạc lõng, bằng sự vô định với cuộc đời.
August 3, 2023
L’anima ferita dei reduci
Legato inscindibilmente nella memoria al capolavoro “Niente di nuovo sul fronte occidentale”, Eric Maria Remarque è tuttavia autore di altri eccellenti romanzi meno noti che nel loro complesso presentano un suggestivo spaccato della Germania dagli anni ’10 del secolo scorso in poi, non solo negli aspetti storici, economici e politici ma soprattutto nelle dure ripercussioni psicologiche e sociali della Grande Guerra sulla popolazione tali da preludere alle prime avvisaglie del nazionalsocialismo.
Questo romanzo in particolare si sviluppa negli anni immediatamente successivi al conflitto, ponendo in primo piano, attraverso la voce del soldato Birkholz, la dolorosa situazione dei reduci, anche se tutta la comunità tedesca contemporanea affiora in filigrana nella narrazione.
L’elemento principale che domina la condizione dei sopravvissuti al quadriennio di massacri nelle Fiandre, decimati dalla fame e dalle bombe, dagli stenti e dal freddo, è il disadattamento, psicologico ancor più che sociale, l’incapacità a reinserirsi in una società che appare indifferente quando non addirittura ostile, quasi a ritenerli responsabili delle conseguenze della guerra e della sconfitta patite dalla popolazione civile.
Il passaggio dalla brusca conclusione del conflitto, che coglie quasi increduli i combattenti, al congedo è rappresentato nella scena disperata dell’ultima adunata quando, di fronte a un imbarazzato sottufficiale nel piazzale che ospitava fieramente schierati cinquecento uomini, si ritrovano ora solo trentadue laceri derelitti: “Il vento di novembre fischia nel cortile vuoto della caserma e i nostri compagni se ne vanno. Non ci vorrà molto perché ciascuno sia di nuovo solo”.
Inizia così per questi infelici, in contrasto con l’agognato recupero della vita civile, la dura via del ritorno: ben presto l’unico vincolo con il mondo circostante si rivelerà il cameratismo, un legame che travalica il carattere, il ceto sociale, il mestiere civile dei reduci portandoli a cercare ancora la vicinanza dei compagni, anche se afflitti in vario modo dalle ferite non rimarginate della terribile esperienza convissuta: il suicidio, la violenza, le sbornie, i ricoveri negli ospedali psichiatrici, la perdita dei legami familiari, l’apatia sono trappole che minacciano l’esistenza, anche di coloro che al fronte parevano i più robusti e resistenti.
La narrazione intrisa di grande malinconia si apre di tanto in tanto a momenti di tregua illusoria, dove la natura della campagna e dei boschi riporta la mente al ricordo di una giovinezza spensierata, prima che fosse troncata dagli eventi e sopraffatta dall’esperienza terribile delle trincee.
Legato inscindibilmente nella memoria al capolavoro “Niente di nuovo sul fronte occidentale”, Eric Maria Remarque è tuttavia autore di altri eccellenti romanzi meno noti che nel loro complesso presentano un suggestivo spaccato della Germania dagli anni ’10 del secolo scorso in poi, non solo negli aspetti storici, economici e politici ma soprattutto nelle dure ripercussioni psicologiche e sociali della Grande Guerra sulla popolazione tali da preludere alle prime avvisaglie del nazionalsocialismo.
Questo romanzo in particolare si sviluppa negli anni immediatamente successivi al conflitto, ponendo in primo piano, attraverso la voce del soldato Birkholz, la dolorosa situazione dei reduci, anche se tutta la comunità tedesca contemporanea affiora in filigrana nella narrazione.
L’elemento principale che domina la condizione dei sopravvissuti al quadriennio di massacri nelle Fiandre, decimati dalla fame e dalle bombe, dagli stenti e dal freddo, è il disadattamento, psicologico ancor più che sociale, l’incapacità a reinserirsi in una società che appare indifferente quando non addirittura ostile, quasi a ritenerli responsabili delle conseguenze della guerra e della sconfitta patite dalla popolazione civile.
Il passaggio dalla brusca conclusione del conflitto, che coglie quasi increduli i combattenti, al congedo è rappresentato nella scena disperata dell’ultima adunata quando, di fronte a un imbarazzato sottufficiale nel piazzale che ospitava fieramente schierati cinquecento uomini, si ritrovano ora solo trentadue laceri derelitti: “Il vento di novembre fischia nel cortile vuoto della caserma e i nostri compagni se ne vanno. Non ci vorrà molto perché ciascuno sia di nuovo solo”.
Inizia così per questi infelici, in contrasto con l’agognato recupero della vita civile, la dura via del ritorno: ben presto l’unico vincolo con il mondo circostante si rivelerà il cameratismo, un legame che travalica il carattere, il ceto sociale, il mestiere civile dei reduci portandoli a cercare ancora la vicinanza dei compagni, anche se afflitti in vario modo dalle ferite non rimarginate della terribile esperienza convissuta: il suicidio, la violenza, le sbornie, i ricoveri negli ospedali psichiatrici, la perdita dei legami familiari, l’apatia sono trappole che minacciano l’esistenza, anche di coloro che al fronte parevano i più robusti e resistenti.
La narrazione intrisa di grande malinconia si apre di tanto in tanto a momenti di tregua illusoria, dove la natura della campagna e dei boschi riporta la mente al ricordo di una giovinezza spensierata, prima che fosse troncata dagli eventi e sopraffatta dall’esperienza terribile delle trincee.
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