Despite Remarque's flawless sarcasm and sense of humor, his books are never an easy read. Only when reading Remarque one gets an irresistible urge to google "How to stop being afraid of death?"

This book tells a story about a young guy who survived WW1. He spent his youth at war and thus did not get to ask himself all the questions young people ask themselves.

There are two sides to this story. The first one tells about Ludwig's everyday life, describes the people he meets in the most hilarious ways, but the point is that this side of the story is aimed at making the reader feel how pointless those daily routines are, how insignificant it all is compared to the second side of the story. Now this part tells one of the oddest love stories I have read about. Ludwig falls for an insane woman, literally insane - she spends her days at a madhouse. At first she really does seem crazy, but as you read, you see more reason in her words and actions than in those of other Werdenbrück town inhabitants.

The Black Obelisk is a fount of quotes and a well of irony, but then it also introduces the reader to the consequences of war by describing people who have gone mad because of it, people who no longer fit into reality. Remarque managed to get us into the atmosphere of post-WW1 Germany, he let the reader understand the birth of Nazism there, showed us that there could be no other way for these people back then. It really did seem to be the right philosophy to choose after you've fought for a country whose economy just collapsed and left all veterans with nothing but hatred towards all nations supposedly guilty of their despair.

I have not read many Remarque's works, but I'd definitely suggest reading this one to everyone. It will be a slow read, a thought-provoking one, sometimes funny, sometimes depressing, but it'll plunge you in the early 1920s German mood for sure.

Абсолютно очаквано, поредната страхотна книга на Ремарк.


(Спойлер)
Иска ми се да не бях прочела последните 3 страници. Иска ми се, въпреки че зная какво следва след Първата световна война, всичко да беше приключило до качването на влака. Изречението "Аз никога повече не видях никого от тези хора" буквално уби частица от мен.

Любов до життя спричиняє одвічну дилему:
Ми хочемо жити, та прагнемо щиро і вперто
На небо, туди, де, як кажуть, ворота Едему.
Не хочем збагнути, що треба спочатку померти.

Поки що це найгірше з того, що читав з Ремарка. Хоча у цьому випадку найгірше — зовсім не означає погано. Працівник бюро ритуальних послуг у непростий економічний період не падає духом — він з почуттям гумору дивиться на смерть, вдало поєднує філософські розмови у божевільні з повсякденними розвагами. Як на мене, твору бракує сюжету. Автор відкрив мені очі на міжвоєнну Німеччину, але не зацікавив мене таким банальним питанням — “а що ж буде далі?” — воно не виникло в мене жодного разу. Але що могло бути далі — адже Німеччина котилася у прірву...

This book is for literature, what Otto Dix did for painting.
That is to say, the novel treats the social dimension of the crisis of the 1920s in Germany in the same way that painters of objective realism did.
They denounce the abandonment of war invalids, the elites' indecent lifestyle, the Weimar Republic's headlong rush, and National Socialism's popularity.
In this novel, E.M. Remarque speaks of all the morgue of the crisis. The morgue is the proper sense since it is the undertakers' story, who prosper thanks to poverty and famine and punctuate their days with endless drunkenness.
The story is very cynical, structuring the novel to feel the delirious fever of these periods of inflation.