Remarque is clearly a pacifist. But his pacifism isn't the naive hold hands and sing kumbaya kind of Cat Stevens or John Lennon. His is driven by the disillusionment and rage of having experienced the trenches for years and having borne the scars, physical and emotional, of the great war, an exercise that yielded little but laid bare the entire lie of an existence of his generation before him. There was no truth to the fatherland, all ideals of glory and noble sacrifice for the good of the realm built upon an edifice of lies.

All Quiet... and The Road Back need to be prescribed curriculum in schools everywhere. Let any politician clamouring for war raise his voice over the silent din of the pathetic procession of war cripples, noiselessly holding up placards before an apathetic mayor.

It was the first half of the 20th century, and PTSD was still known as shellshock back then. That which an entire generation knew but dared not speak of. Remarque speaks of it tho. In cruel agonizing detail. Of the despair, the hallucinations, the disillusionment and the visions which force soldiers perpetually into the war they can never leave behind.

Never has a writer expressed as powerful a pathos as Erich Maria Remarque

3.5/5

An intimate character driven drama about German soldiers adapting back to society following their defeat in WW1. The amount of characters did feel a bit overwhelming at times with only a handful of them fully fleshed out, but overall a really good companion piece to its predecessor and just as heartbreaking and satisfying to read but in a completely different way.

“Aqui estão os anos perdidos, que não podem ser preenchidos, como uma névoa fantasmagórica que pairasse sobre os túmulos, aqui clama a vida não vivida, que não encontra sossego, no silêncio prenhe de bramidos ao céu, aqui flui a força e a vontade de uma juventude que morreu, antes que soubesse começar a viver, como um lamento medonho que atravessasse a noite.”

La scrittura di Remarque è poetica, evocativa e straziante come poche.
Questo è uno di quei libri che quando finisce ti lascia disconnesso dalla realtà.

Diventa facilmente uno dei miei preferiti di sempre