Customer Reviews

Time To Love and A Time to Die

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

This is a very interesting and frightening book, exploring such a dark theme as war and what it does to soldiers as well as civilians. Ernst Graeber is a very young soldier, but from his outlook on life you would expect him to be middle-aged ... at the very least. Of course, it is the war that has aged him. As the title suggests: for him it is really a time to love, although the times are so horrible.

The book begins with scenes from Russia, where Graeber is stationed. He knows in his heart by now that Germany will not win the war, and that they in fact are retreating, no matter what is said on the radio. Graeber is able to think surprisingly clear on the subject.

When Graeber gets leave (which is since long overdue) he is very surprised. However, he is certain that he will come home to Germany as it was when he left it. To his great sorrow, he discovers that he has not left the war, only discovered another frontier of it. His home town is bombed and much destroyed, and his parents are nowhere to be found. He cannot understand the sense of it all. But he meets a friend from his childhood, Elisabeth, and they have a short, almost unreal, love story.

Graeber makes inquiries about his parents, and therefore he meets lots of people. Almost everybody is looking for somebody else - somebody who is missing or not accounted for. Thus, Graeber gets to see into many other people's minds, and understand what the war does to them, to them all. People do not wear so many masks - there is no energy left to that. Graeber meets mankind uncovered.

Remarque is very good at describing mankind at is worst, and he shows us that cruelty has no mother tongue - it is a universal language.

One of my favorite books (like Pride & Prejudice) that I have read again and again, throughout my life. Its a great love story that has a lot to say about how to live your life (focus on the important stuff). Try this book and get a nice surprise.

The story is of a German soldier on the Russian front after the turning point in the war. The Germans are in full retreat and the novel captures the desperation of an unbelieving Germany facing its inevitable and complete defeat. German culture is destroyed twice; once by the Nazis and then by the allies. As EMR's All Quiet on the Western Front's primary messege is anti-war, his later works seem to be about the need to destroy the Nazi regime and its unprecidented reign of fear and brutality.

If you are not moved by this book - check if your heart is there! One of my all-time favorites! Inredible.

This novel was interesting on the perspective of your life and it helps you realize that the expression "Life's too short," is true. I found it very interesting. The perspective on WW11 gave me a different view of the the enemy thought of this while the war was going on. I give it 4 STARS!

WAS IT ENOUGH THAT HE HAD OBEYED ORDERS WITHOUT QUESTION?

ernst Graber wondered as he lay in the Russian mud, the greasy stink of death in his nostrils and in his ears the roar of artillery and the whine of machine-gun bullets. And then out of the habitual sight of horror and desolation he discovered, in the passion of a brief tragic interlude, that there was love well as hate, and at last he found an answer....and a vindication.

The story is of a German soldier on the Russian front after the turning point in the war. The Germans are in full retreat and the novel captures the desperation of an unbelieving Germany facing its inevitable and complete defeat. German culture is destroyed twice; once by the Nazis and then by the allies. As EMR's All Quiet on the Western Front's primary messege is anti-war, his later works seem to be about the need to destroy the Nazi regime and its unprecidented reign of fear and brutality.