Successor to “All Quiet"

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19373, 10 July 1937, Page 9

Successor to “All Quiet"

in “All Quiet on the Western Front” there were qualities which ensured success; it was n most deftly to'd story, for one thing: and it was very moving, it played upon the emotions in a fashion to which the superficially cynical post-war temperament was in no way hostile. These qualities are also to be found in “Three Comrades,” by Herr Erich Maria Remarque. Here, too, is an enthralling story, this time about German ex-Servicemen suffering ill-for-tune after the war. It includes, moreover, a love story which begins blithely and ends tragically. And, here, too, is that oblique, ostensibly hard-boiled but in ultimate effect tenderhearted appeal to the emotions.

It is difficult not to be moved by this story, and that is a tribute to Herr Remarque’s craftsmanship. The novel tells the story of three ex-servicemen, Bob, Otto and Gottfried, who run a small garage in the period between the inflation years and Hitler's accession to power. They are bound together by the memories of wartime comradeship, and their affection for each other is not disturbed when Bob, the youngest, the simplest and most romantic of them all, falls in love with a girl named Patricia Hollman.

One is given to understand that the economic situation prevents Bob and his sweetheart from marrying, so they have to be satisfied with surreptitious idylls. Patricia, however, is doomed to die of phthisis. The friends scrape enough money together to send her to a mountain sanatorium. In the meantime, Gottfried is shot dead in the street by a young stormtrooper. Otto plans to kill the murderer, but is forestalled by another friend of Gottfried’s. The garage Tails and is sold up. Bob hurries away to be with Patricia when she dies.