Three Comrades: A Novel by Erich Maria Remarque: book review

Three Comrades (1936, this edition 2014) is by the author of All Quiet on the Western Front (1928). Set in Germany in 1928 in an unnamed city, it is the story of three young men in the post-war Depression: narrator Robert Lohkamp, Otto Koster, and Gottfried Lenz. They are working in an auto-repair workshop (Aurewo) owned by Otto. They had all served together in the First World War.

Robby has been living in Frau Zalewski's boarding house for two years, with other boarders - Hasse and his wife who have lived in the boarding house for five years and argue constantly; Erna Bonig, a private secretary ('She had two friends. One loved her and brought her flowers. The other she loved and gave money.'); Count Orlov, a Russian riding master; Frau Bender, a 50-year-old nurse; Herr Muller, a happy retired accountant; and Georg Block, a college student.

On his thirtieth birthday, Robby meets beautiful upper-class Patricia Hollmann. His views of romantic relationships change, as does his relationship with his two friends, Otto and Gottfried. But Patricia is not well. An horrific bout of haemorrhaging from tuberculosis of the lungs brings Robby and Patricia closer together mentally, but physically apart when Doctor Jaffe orders her to attend a Swiss sanatorium. Robby didn't know she had been admitted to the sanatorium two years before they met, for six months. Now, both her lungs are affected.

The beginning of 1929 is horrid. The political situation hints at the rise of Adolf Hitler, Gottfried is enmeshed in politics, the auto-repair shop is in financial difficulty, people are committing suicide due to high levels of unemployment, Hasse's wife leaves to dire consequences, and Patricia's health deteriorates rapidly.

Robby acknowledges his love for Patricia as 'love with a mixture of sadness, reverence, and silent knowledge.' For the last days of her life, Robert travels to the sanatorium to be with her. As Hasse says, 'I pictured life so different.' Robby responds, 'We all have.'

Remarque is an amazing writer, with gentle images of the landscape, the boarding inn, and the auto-repair workshop. He writes poignantly about friendships, and what happens when an outsider - a female - is introduced into a tightly-bonded male group.

This edition's formatting and translation adversely affects the flow and readability of this version. The translation is disjointed, stilted, wooden, and annoying. Count Orlov becomes Orlow, the style changes, and the dialogue is out of character. It is only in the last 100 pages of the 484-page novel where the story is strongest, that eventually the plot over-rides the poor translation.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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