Arch of Triumph
Arch of Triumph is one of the most beautiful European novels of the XX century. A novel about love, war and death. And I know that in this book there are despair, sadness, pain, I know it… and still open the first page…
Four people. A man, a miserable romantic, devoid of illusions and temporarily named in this short life as Ravic. A woman, amazon with aqua eyes, Joan. A professional surgeon, the best of the best, who has to hide from the police in someone another country, without betraying himself, working in secret, giving all his merits to another. An actress, realizing that her talent is not perfect, bright and emotional, different from many and dreaming of being loved and admired. What unites them? Of course, love. Tragic, somewhat crazy, but still love. They are amazing, it is impossible not to fall in love with them. And how Joan changes throughout the book! For the first time we meet an indifferent to everything, “an empty woman”, and by the end she gets more beautiful. And at the same time she changes Ravic, turning his life upside down, shaking up the old memories.
This is not an ordinary book. It’s the whole life, that gives you shivers, it will remain in you heart for a long time. It is difficult to write reviews for such books. It is said that the forbidden fruit is the sweetest. So Remarque became such a “forbidden fruit” for me. I read, swallowing tears, and could not stop. Until the very last page, I was reading this book with the greatest attention. To read about pain is more difficult than to experience it by yourself. You have to be an incredibly strong person to agree to be a third-party observer without a chance to be heard. I still cannot understand how the author could write this way, even in happy moments there is a sadness. And it attracts – this sweet sadness with a taste of loneliness. Arch of Triumph did not impress me. Remarque completely does not pities his readers, he offers them the most rigid, most irreversible and depressing truth of life – and that’s why the book is beautiful. The book Arch of Triumph made me look at my everyday life differently. Remarque is absolutely amazing! His manner of narration literally made me dizzy. Remarque so masterfully describes the everyday life, that you want immediately to be there and feel all this by yourself, to see by yourself.