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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Here's a paper I wrote for this book for my English class, hope you guys enjoy it.By Connor BrookshireIn the novel "The Road Back," the main character, Ernst longs for feelings of being whole, searching for the feelings of comradeship that he had had out on the front lines in The Great War. Likewise, for Ernst's friends assimilating is also difficult, with jobs and social statuses removing the comradeship out in the trenches and replacing it with some pseudo form of reality. With a "silent war ravaging this country of my memories," Ernst is unsure on how to live his life. Not as much as a novel, but more of a passive argument for pacifists everywhere, "The Road Back" by Erich Maria Remarque is an introspection of a veteran that has had his life changed while out on the front. The book is near philosophical in its grim portrait of World War I veterans returning home to Germany from a long life in the trenches.The continuation of Erich Maria Remarque's masterpiece All Quiet on the Western Front begins with the road back to Germany after peace has been declared and soon follows with the troubles that befall The Great War veterans. Ernst and his close friends must face war crimes in times of peace, poverty, lack of comradeship, emotional turmoil, feelings of being used, and forgotten. Ernst and his company witness protests and riots with machine guns massacring crowds in front of them and experience the death of the closest of comrades. Contrary to what Remarque says- these two books are indeed a confession of what he saw in these times.As Ernst attempts to live his life in post-war Germany, he soon starts to remember all of the responsibilities he had when he wasn't a soldier. Ernst is faced with assimilating back into school, family life, and potentially a job. However, it isn't only Ernst being reluctant to assimilate back into civilian standards. His friends, Willy, Ludwig, and Albert too have problems, and even at times openly oppose assimilating back into city life. In a dispute during their welcome back speech to school, the veterans slam the principle, with overwhelming information, and unsuppressed frustration of the front. While the principle attempts to paint each man that died, and each man that came back, as heroes, the soldiers continually beg to differ. In an especially revealing quote, Willy booming with laughter screams at the principle "Hero's death! Would you like to know how young Hoyer died? Stuck in the wire screaming, and his guts out of his belly like macaroni." Willy continuing, reveals that Hoyer died by being shredded by shrapnel that is comparable to a "nutmeg grater." Refusing the hero's speech, and refusing a standard education, the company soon vouches for a more accelerated and shortened education; exemplifying how little the veterans care to assimilate back into a standard style of living.Erich Remarque offers up painfully thoughtful questions about war, and with statements proposed like, "Because none can ever wholly feel what another suffers - is that the reason why wars perpetually recur?" One truly begins to understand Ernst's struggle. Likewise, this quote runs deep with Ernst. The largest reason why he has such trouble getting back into normal civilian life is due to the fact that he feels that no one understands him. He feels he doesn't belong, and that he is no longer the same person. In a specific part of The Road Back Ernst revisits an old fishing pond in where instead of viewing old memories or finding old joys, he only sees how to make the pond a battle emplacement. Ernst is continually confused as these feelings, while seemingly wrong, do not feel wrong, and with perpetual thoughts that are the exact equivalent of the above mentioned Ernst only begins to reinforce the thoughts that civilian life is not for him, and that he does not belong with the populace surrounding him.Ernst's quest for wholeness leads him to move out and away from his parents. Sadly this proves to no avail, and only continually isolates Ernst from everyone around him. However, while in his house he sees the worst side of the war. The riots and protests that are demonstrated, while viewing these, he sees men missing their whole bodies, all limbs gone, just a torso of flesh. Some of these protests get so out of hand and even begin to threaten government officials. The military is brought in, and machine-guns are pointed at the crowd opposing the rioting crowd. This ever present tumult is just a grand presentation of the question asked earlier. While there may be no war in Europe, one still exists even in peace-time Germany because one cannot wholly feel what another does.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Cracking Up After WarBy David Island"The Road Back" by Erich Maria Remarque is dark and foreboding, a grim reminder of the psychological toll that combat takes on foot soldiers. Re-adjustment back home is actually impossible in the black market milieu and the harsh realities of an ignorant and uncaring civilian populace, who can behave only as they did in years past. There really is no "Road Back," just more misery. The soldiers would prefer the trenches than their disillusionment and despair back home. They all felt betrayed and that their sacrifice was for nothing. The story is irredeemably sad, and it is often painful to read. Remarque's remarkable talent to describe the beauty of nature, the skies and the changing seasons do not diminish the overall tone of the book. It is a book that is remembered for the somber, disquieting mood it sets and maintains. The reader is absorbed into this mood.I believe that the book was probably beautifully written in its original German language, but to tell the truth (my view), the translation is inconsistent and very often quite unacceptable. I just did not understand why the translator, A. W. Wheen, chose so many "strange" English language words and phrases. To be blunt, much of the translation read as if it were performed by a German national, who perhaps had a fair-to-middling understanding of English, but a very poor vocabulary, and who, in a panic, resorted to literal, old-fashioned, dictionary-style translations - perhaps a British 19th Century dictionary. Too much of the translation is just "out of left field" for an American reader in 2010. Many times, I wrote the word "huh?" in the margin, puzzled once again by such a poor choice of words by Wheen. The lingo and speaking style of the modestly educated characters in the story would not be lost by an elevated 21st Century re-translation. I doubt that anyone reading this book in the original German would have such a criticism. The translator's style almost ruined the reading of this wonderful book for me.The story's main problem, is that it goes nowhere. Perhaps the structure of the story reflects the psychology described - men adrift back home after a horrible war experience. The book reads a little like a serial publication, one that might have been published weekly over time, with one chapter not necessarily leading to the next, but rather becoming a somewhat disconnected group of episodes in the lives of the returned war soldiers. There are vague thematic threads in the story that continue from beginning to end, however. The book's ending was too sweet and too hopeful, given the bulk of the story line, and the ending (epilogue) was almost unrelated to the main story. I did not like the ending at all. It didn't fit.Life after World War I in pre-Hitler Germany, just before the great depression killed the old Germany for good, was in fact awful. Remarque truly brings that reality to life, as well as the tensions between the Communists and the Old Order. But the full effect of the Treaty of Versailles had not yet taken its economic and psychological toll on the German people. However, one can see the handwriting on the wall: Germany will rise again, and it will not be a pretty sight when it does.Notwithstanding its two great flaws (an awful translation and a story that reads more like a painting than a tale with a beginning, middle and end), the book is still sensational. It may not be Remarque's best work ("Three Comrades" and "All Quiet on the Western Front" are superior), but nonetheless it is excellent and gives a clear and convincing view of war's psychological damage on all people - whether soldiers or not. Remarque is at his best when showing how civilians, who never were near the front lines, have no idea at all who these soldiers really are, could never have any idea of what life was like in the trenches and what the soldiers went through. It's a gruesome reminder of that truism: if you haven't been there, you don't know. It doesn't matter what war is under discussion. The same phenomenon happens again and again. In this way, history does fatally repeat itself, and humankind does not learn.I liked Ernst, the narrator, although he was a bit of a drama queen. His role at the "trial" near the end was almost entirely out of keeping of his personality developed throughout the early part of the book. The trial itself was unrealistic and was the worst part of the book. But the trial provided Remarque with a platform to make his political points, driving them home again and again and again. There's lots of anger in this book. We got it.All in all, a 4 on 's rating scale.3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. HauntingBy Howard KayI cannot believe this book is not more well known. The war is over. Now what? From beginning to end this book is haunting. While written from perspective of the main character Ernst- an inspirational and likeable character from the beginning, I was really touched by Ludwig Breyer. Weighing duty to comrades to adjusting to post war life. For Ludwig choice was beyond painful for Ernst there is hopeful possibility. In the end you cant help thinking Ernst is doomed to future with Nazis and is truly a representative of the Lost Generation The sequel to the masterpiece All Quiet on the Western Front, The Road Back is a classic novel of the slow return of peace to Europe in the years following World War I.After four grueling years, the Great War has finally ended. Now Ernst and the few men left from his company cannot help wondering what will become of them. The town they departed as eager young men seems colder, their homes smaller, the reasons their comrades had to die even more inexplicable.For Ernst and his friends, the road back to peace is more treacherous than they ever imagined. Suffering food shortages, political unrest, and a broken heart, Ernst undergoes a crisis that teaches him what there is to live for—and what he has that no one can ever take away.“The world has a great writer in Erich Maria Remarque. He is a craftsman of unquestionably first rank, a man who can bend language to his will. Whether he writes of men or of inanimate nature, his touch is sensitive, firm, and sure.”—The New York Times Book Review
“The world has a great writer in Erich Maria Remarque. He is a craftsman of unquestionably first rank, a man who can bend language to his will. Whether he writes of men or of inanimate nature, his touch is sensitive, firm, and sure.”—The New York Times Book Language NotesText: English (translation) Original Language: GermanFrom the Inside FlapTHE ROAD BACKAfter four grueling years the Great War has finally ended. Now Ernst and the few men left from his company cannot help wondering what will become of them. The town they departed as eager young men seems colder, their homes smaller, the reasons their comrades had to die even more inexplicable. For Ernst and his friends, the road back to peace is more treacherous than they ever imagined. Suffering food shortages, political unrest, and a broken heart, Ernst undergoes a crisis that teaches him what there is to live for--and what he has that no one can ever take away.
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