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Summary: Wartime Love Story
Review: "Arch of Triumph" by Erich Maria Remarque is a wartime love story. This is the classic love story and anyone who reads it, will never forget it for the rest of her or his life. Snip: (...)
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Summary: One of the best books I've ever read
Review: 'Arch of Triumph' is a book which becomes your friend, and you want to read it again, and each time you are discovering something else. It makes you think about what is really important in life, and at the same time it is a story about war, love, trust, friendship, humanity ...
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Summary: If there were such a mark as 6/5, I would gladly mark it.
Review: A piercing sorrow that momentary happiness drags on to an individual, an experience that would make everyday boredom look happy and idle, a passion that would never be quenched, someone's tears... "I'd pretend that I'm a normal housewife... and that you are not in exile, you have a good passport and don't need to hide... and that I cry if you are not home, if only one night, and that we are always madly love in and jealous of each other even when we are old..." It pounds your heart, and the charm that each individual shines like a precious gem, is never, never to be found by browsing through the superficial plot line. READ READ READ!!! The best book ever. (Perhaps surpassed only by Bronte sisters and Hesse.)
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Summary: An old favorite of mine.
Review: An old favorite of mine.
A friend asked me to recommend a Remarque novel. We discussed 'All Quiet...'. My reply follows: 'Sure, in fact one of my favorites of Remarque's books is a thinly veiled portrait of Marlene Dietrich; or rather the intertwining of her life with his in Paris at the eve the period up to war in Europe, the year before the WW2 broke out.---
The English title is 'Arch of Triumph'. Like with all Remarque's books, the title is full of irony, and undercurrents of double meanings. Naturally, the book is not officially about Marlene, but she is hard to miss. Rather the book is personal,and has a good amount of autobiographical flavor. Yet, it is a captivating and suspenseful novel.
Like the two protagonists in the novel, Remarque and Dietrich were themselves at a desparate point in their lives in 1939.
Side comment: I am afraid that a lot is lost in the translation of Remarque's books. He only wrote in German, even when he lived in the US.
In any case, Remarque is a master of a suspenseful openings, in his novels. This one does not disapoint! Lots of his books are about refugee life of sorts. Another of Remarque's novels I often return to is 'Night in Lisbon', and it is again about escape from a Europe at high noon, just as Europe is going up in flames before WW2.' Review by Palle Jorgensen, September 2004.
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Summary: Arch of Triumph
Review: Best book ever about people that have to leave their countries en try their luck elswhere. It's frightfully true & if you know the present u'll see that nothing is changed in Europe sinds WW II.
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Summary: Good but not thrilling
Review: I saw the movie with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer, and found it incredibly dull. I thought maybe the book would be better. I was right, it was better, but it didn't thrill me or really move me the way All Quiet on the Western Front did. I am not sure if this is partly due to the fact that I read it when I was a bit tired. I don't really have a lot to say. It's not a book that I can enthusiastically applaud, but I won't say it was horrible. I would advise you to just read it for yourself and decide whether you like it or not! : )
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Summary: You feel like have been in Paris after reading this book
Review: It is true. Remarque's detailed and romantic style of describing Paris makes the book, even today a powerful guide to visit and enjoy Paris. It is a wonderful book to be recommended to someone who planes to visit Paris or surprise with a Calvados drink someone that had red the book. Also, dialogues Ravic-Joan and Morosow-Ravic are so powerful that doubtlessly make this book exceptionally enjoying and the story immortal.
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Summary: When all you have is love...
Review: One of the best books I've ever read and a true Remarque. Showing how love can suddenly bring a person back to life, provide a function for living. Telling about finding a way to rid oneself of the burden of past, without having to forget it. Bigtime recommendtion.
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Summary: Answers the question: What do we live our lives for?
Review: The struggles of a brilliant surgeon who is also an illegal refugee in pre-WWII Paris are the subject of this fine work of fiction. As Dr.Ravic scrapes together some meaning and purpose for his shadow existence, the reader begins to understand why his determined faith in the human spirit gives him the will to persist as European civilization seems about to collapse around him. A story of great love, impossible revenge, and greater justice, this book may be a guide to those whose personal struggles against forces in today's destructive culture seem overwhelming.
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Summary: Wartime Love Story
Review: This is not intended for those of you who have never heard of Erich Maria Remarque. For the unfortunate ones who haven't come across any of his books, or were forced to read "All Quiet On The Western Front" as a homework assignment, you have been deprived of one of the greatest authors of the 20th century. After attaining any acknowlegement for any written work, writters tend to shift toward the more abstract and try to write something more profound then any of us 'Pleasure Readers' ever intended on reading. Remraque stays true to his roots, whether it is "Three Commrades", or this, "Arch Of Triumph", he keeps the balance between constructive conversation, 'page turning' story telling, and poetic descriptions that will forever be imprinted in our minds. Arch of Triumph is set in Paris during the late 1930's. Europe was on the road to recovering from the first Warld War and lurking was the air of the 2nd. Germans opossed to the new political views that ruled Germany fled anywhere refuge could be found. Ravic once an accomplished surgeon in Germany found himself in Paris, with no visa or passport. As an illegal refugee he had no rights to practice his profession in France and was forced to work underground performing surgeries illegaly. Paris, synonomous with elegance, good food, brothels, love,(at least in fiction) is described so beautifully in the eyes of Ravic that by the middle of the book I can swear I've been to Paris. Love, friendship, danger, philosophy they all have their places in this book. Without giving away too much I will cut it here and urge anyone who appreciates any of the above topics to read this book and find bliss in humanity and its simplicity put into words.
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