Reviews

A Time to Love and a Time to Die by Erich Maria Remarque

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scrapespaghetti's review against another edition

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2.0

90% dialogue

wikass_04's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

blueyorkie's review against another edition

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5.0

This novel begins with shocking descriptions of corpses, much like in World War II. Gräber, the main character, is a German soldier on the Russian front. He obtains permission to find his relatives in Germany. Arriving in his home village, he struggles to find his house through the rubble of the bombings and searches for his family. He will also find love, get married, and live "day to day" in this devastated village, disgusted by this war, the debacle in the face of the imminent defeat of Germany...
I enjoyed reading this very touching book. The characters are endearing and have a lot of "relief"; for example, Gräber finds it challenging to choose himself in the face of a former comrade who has now become a "murderous" Nazi officer who offers him his hospitality with great sympathy. Gräber's love reminds me of Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls," in which Robert Jordan decides to live a complete love story in three days.
However, this German character is very, even too "clean"; it almost resembles a soldier from an American film... But that in no way detracts from the beauty of this story and the experience that E.M. Remarque offers.

tumormozgowicz's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

2beenough's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

hobbitfreddie's review against another edition

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4.0

After reading Mr. Remarque's All Quiet and The Road Back (probably my favorite books) he quickly became my favorite author. And so I'm now trying to read all his works, this is my third work of his I've read. While I liked the former more, this still has Mr. Remarque's excellent writing. Philosphical, beautiful yet haunting, and just a good book to chew on.

I really like the moral grayness of the characters. It's in the POV of a Nazi soldier during WW2. Yet, there is alot of complexity to the more antagonistic characters. There are definetly some people who are straight up villains however. Graeber himself is complex, he's not totally blindly patriotic, but he's not completely moral. It was a bit odd, because I couldn't really grasp what his character was supposed to be, but by the end it all makes sense.

The romance is also quite nice, it's very sweet, and Elisabeth, the love interest, doesn't just feel like a trope or a blank slate. There's substance to the relationship.

Now the classic philopsphy and exestentialsim. I think this one takes after the road back's character focused exestentialism. So if one read and liked that book they'll probably like this one. There's some good exestentialism sprinkled in, and is always a treat to see. And it's not just all anti-war or hope themes, there's more. So it's like a repeat of all quiet. There's stuff about love, duty, etc. Typical Remarque stuff.
Anyways yeah read this book.