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! : )

'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 ...

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.

This book should be read in every high school in America. The shocking beauty of the words cannot help but transform the reader and his opinions about the effect of World War II on the ordinary German people. Remarque is sadly known only for "All Quiet on the Western Front". His best work and my personal favorite is "Arch of Triumph" but no ones time would be wasted on reading any of his work. If this man wrote the telephone book I would read it.

I loved this book. It is definitly one Remargue's best. The way he describes the war and his surroundings is just perfect. He bends words to his will. I've read Remargue's Three comrades and it was pretty good, but not as captivating as a time to love. Me being a 15 year old girl I couldn't even imagin what a war would be like, but Remarque does excellent job of describing the affects of war on a person's life. How so much can be created and destroyed in 3 weeks of leave. Its now one of my favs. I recommend it to everyone.

You might think, from what is usually said about him, that "ALL Quiet on the Western Front" was the only book Erich Remarque wrote. Yet some of his later novels are surprisingly good and profoundly memorable. I admire very much how he found his own territory of experience to write about-- not just the determined anti-war sentiments that made him justly famous with "All Quiet," but also his novels of veterans returning to the post-war home front and his stories of refugees fleeing the ravages of World War II. And "A Time to Love and a Time to Die" might be the best of these novels. Its setting is unique: a German soldier returns home on furlough during the latter stages of the war to find his hometown largely destroyed by allied bombing-- a scene as desperate as any on the eastern front which he has just left. The novel is powerfully sustained from beginning to end, filled with vivid detail, and pervaded by dread of the gestapo and a feeling of the overwhelming absurdity of war. Amid this wreckage, Remarque composes a beautiful and moving love story between the soldier and a young woman whose father is in a concentration camp. Some of Remarque's recurring themes can be seen at work here: decent people at the mercy of political upheaval and cruel ideologies, and the preciousness of life in a world where life is so cheaply held. The prose has many fine moments of dark beauty. This novel might make you think, as I do, that Remarque's reputation should be reassessed. I read somewhere recently that Chekhov said that great art could never be depressing. With that in mind, I urge everyone to read, and reclaim, this excellent novel.

...Remarque fills several hundred pages with the mostly unconnected activities and ruminations of a large number of residents of a small German city after the defeat of the Kaiser's armies in World War I. But the narrative progression of the novel is to be found not so much in an analysis of what these people do as in how they do it: haphazardly, with the good humor that is born of shared helplessness, and with a mounting sense of alarm that far greater misfortunes are not only thinkable but likely. While the reader may often wonder where the author is headed in this book, the characters themselves and the pathetic state they are in very quickly become compelling preoccupations. Remarque has something very important to say in these pages...He tries to look at the past with objectivity, at the present with an hygienic laugh, and at the future with courage. There are some unsettling aspects to the author's occasional treatment of people as types and stereotypes: military men are always ruthless and blind; the clergy love their wine and monopoly on belief; women are manipulative or confused, or else simply break into tears when they can't understand something. Many readers may be put off by Remarque's standard references to perceived homosocial behavior as belonging to a proposed realm of "pansies" or "fairies," for which his principal characters seem compelled to express disaffection with puzzling regularity. "The Black Obelisk" is a novel written by someone who lived through the time and place with which it deals, and carries with it both the authenticity of personal experience and the limitations of vision to which any generation is subject. But its pages hold the attention, until in the end the hidden vocation of the black obelisk itself is revealed: the novel's title was not ill-chosen. Anyone wishing to delve more deeply into some of the reasons for Hitler's rise to power like an evil rocket flaming into the night sky of German defeat, would do well to examine this book. It does not have the rodeo kick of some of Remarque's more chronologic and plot-oriented novels, but its evocation of an age is clear.

Inflation and the collapse of civilization growl like unseen monsters on every page of this novel of Germany in the 1920's. They also make up the principal story line of the book, in terms of what they do to individuals and to groups: here Europe is eased into fascism like a terminal patient dozing in narcosis.Remarque fills several hundred pages with the mostly unconnected activities of a large number of residents of a small German city after World War I. But the narrative progression of the novel is to be found not so much in an analysis of what these people do as in how they do it: haphazardly, with the good humor born of shared helplessness and with a mounting sense of alarm that far greater misfortunes are not only thinkable but likely. The reader may often wonder where the author is headed in this book, but Remarque has something very important to say about a world cut loose from its moorings, a ship adrift in an ocean of sinister lunar pulls. There are some unsettling aspects to the author's occasional treatment of people as types and stereotypes: here military men are always narrow minded, the clergy are invariably arrogant, and women burst into tears in 19th century fashion when they can't understand something. Neither does the novel escape the recurrent homophobia to which Remarque's characters are no stranger. But this book holds the attention, until the hidden vocation of the black obelisk itself is revealed: the tale's title was not ill-chosen. While it may not have the rodeo kick of some of Remarque's more plot-oriented novels, its evocation of an age is as clear and unsmudged as a new pane of glass held up to the sunlight for inspection.

this is my favorite book of all times. with his bitterwseet narrative skills, remarque's masterpiece has captured this reader's heart. the tragic mixture of life, love, homor and melancholy, he has made a book of unbeliveable character and beauty. this is the story of a man who is lost in a desperate world where loneliness and melancholy are the dominant features- the aftermath of world war 1. in this losing battle he finds warmth and tenderness in the least expected places. yet at those times, the more you have, the more you've got to lose. working as a tomb-stone salesman in a small city in Germany, Ludwig fights to break down the barriers that keep him confined, trapped in the man-made hell that is the Germany of after WW1. his friends, his life, his passions- all created by Remarque add up to make a beautiful masterpiece- a novel of love, life and the passions of those who live it. and in the midst of it all, the humor- the laughter and poetic justice only Remarque's skilled hand can bring into this story of life, and the hopes and dreams that are the kindling of its ever-burning fires.

Flotsam is the third Remarque book I have read and unfortunately it lacks the power and emotion of 'All Quiet On The Western Front' and 'A Time To Love And A Time To Die' which I consider two of the best novels I've read. The book is set in Europe preceding World War 2. It concerns Kern, a jew and Stiener, a political disidant, both made stateless refugees by nazi Germany. Both are tossed from country to country like hot potatoes. The rest of Europe, disgustingly unconcerned for them and thousands of others in their plite. While an interesting subject and quite a good read, I never felt I was close to the characters and it tended to meander a little. Maybe I expected too much.

I'm more used to the images and tales of concentration camp victims and exterminations. This story of lost souls forced to drift around the European continent (mostly on foot) in pre-World War II -- people denied passports or any other identification papers -- was a revelation to me.

Anyone interested in what the period between the two World Wars meant to the common German citizen should seriously consider reading this fine novel. I have not found anyone better to describe man's inhumanity to man than Erich Maria Remarque.

Who is to decide who is human detritus? Flotsam, indeed!

A detail and powerful portrait of all people who lived under the oppressive regime of Nazi Germany. The reader of the book will have a deep appreciation for the feelings of hopelessness of the oppressed under an evil and powerful government.