"THE ROAD BACK"

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 144, 20 June 1931, Page 19

"THE ROAD BACK"

SUCCESSOR TO "ALL QUIET"

Remarque's new novel "The Koad Back," has made its appearance, and it is prophesied that it will hare as big a sale as "All Quiet on the Western Front." It is, incidentally,.being published in twenty-five languages, as follows: German, English (English and American editions), French, DanishNorwegian, Dutch, Finnish, Hobrew, Japanese, Icelandic, Yiddish, Italiau, Croatian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Rumanian, Swedish, Spanish, Servian, Slovene, Czech, Bulgarian, Hungarian, and Esperanto. Tho English version has been fluently and vigorously translated by Mr. A. W. "Wbeen. The prologue is concerned with the last days of the fighting, up to tho moment wlieu tho remnant or' No. 2 Platoon, which still, though but a remnant, contains three survivors of 1914, marches back for the last time from the line and begins its return to Germany. The reviewer in the "Times Literary Supplement" remarks that "Tlib Koad Back" has the same merits and the same faults as its predecessor. Eveiy now and then there is a flash of genuine power. "But it is only in flashes that the merits appear. The general level is almost as coarse and brutal as 'All Quiet.' But there is one really well-drawn character—the gigantic soldier, Willy Homeyer, who doeorvea to be remembered and will;, perhaps, make tho book's fortune, if that is not achieved by tho bad language. He serves to show what Herr TTcinnrque could dp were he to abandon his purely sensational methods."