I finally got around to reading the sequel to the fantastic "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque, entitled "The Road Back." It has a different protagonist than the first novel; however, there is some references and name dropping that connect the two novels though I likely missed many of them. Ernst is the main character of "The Road Back," a poignant book about the German solders' return home after World War I.
I grabbed this book on my Kindle. It was affordable and well-packaged for an e-book.
Upon returning home, Ernst and his comrades vacillate between idleness and attempting to assimilate back into society. The latter task proves particularly arduous leading a couple of the comrades to depart town entirely for various reasons...one of them to escape he and his wife being tormented by members of society. It's heartbreaking to read about, but I'm sure it wasn't too uncommon in an environment like that. Other comrades get killed by the police, commit suicide, or get imprisoned for murder despite its being a crime of passion. The latter, which is near the close of the book, actually follows the incident through its court trial where the defendant is asked whether this murder was different than all of the other killing he had done in the war. He noted that it certainly was because, in this case, the man he killed had done something to him. In the war, the murder was more anonymous...the victims innocent or at least as much as the murderers were. It's a thought provoking and touching exchange.
For his part, Ernst also has trouble assimilating but does survive the book. He notes near the end that the war had removed his ability to be happy. However, he follows that by saying that he wasn't particularly unhappy either...it had given him a different appreciation for life even when he struggled to communicate with and interact with others.
This book is gorgeous and I'd be remiss to not share a few quotes from it.
"I have awaited a storm that should deliver me, pluck me away and now it has come softly, even without my knowledge. But it is here. While I was despairing, thinking everything lost, it was already quietly growing. I had thought that division was always an end. Now I know that growth also is division. And growth means relinquishing. And growth has no end."
"We imagined that people would be waiting for us, expecting us, now we see that already every one is taken up with his own affairs. Life has moved on, is still moving on; it is leaving us behind almost as if we were superfluous already."
And last one: "But now I know. I know now that a still, silent war has ravaged this country of my memories also; I know how it would be useless for me to look farther. Time lies between like a great gulf; I cannot get back. There is nothing for it; I must go forward, march onward, anywhere; it matters nothing, for I have no goal."
The first book had an incredible impact on me in my late teens. It remains to be seen whether this book will now, but I am sure that parts of it will stick with me for a long time. The character Willy stole the show from Ernst for me (and from the rest of the characters), but there are a number of scenes that were moving or intense that kind of leave echoes in the back of one's mind. This is a good book.
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