Kriegskameradschaft

THREE COMRADES--Erich Maria Remarque--Little, Brown ($2.75).

In the world which Erich Maria Remarque saw blasted away on the Western Front the only good thing that escaped destruction was comradeship. Behind the shattered lives, in a defeated Germany where the old values tumbled overnight, that value still stood firm. This was the thesis of his first two books. All Quiet on the Western Front and The Road Back; it remains the thesis of his third. To those who have forgotten the War or to those who never knew it, Remarque's preoccupation with this one theme may seem morbid or adolescent. It is not the brotherhood of man that moves his pen but the brotherhood of comrades-in-arms (Kriegskameradschaft). Readers of Three Comrades thought they could detect an almost wistful note of old-soldierism in Remarque's latest. Though he never refers to the War as the good old days, his heroes have become, at least by implication, praisers of the terrible time when they were young.

Three Comrades is on the face of it a lovestory, of the same type as Hemingway's Farewell to Arms, but Remarque's familiar skeleton is not far under the surface. Three old comrades of the War have found each other again in Berlin, in the days just before Hitler. None of them has prospered in post-War Germany. Otto owns a small garage, Robert (the "I" of the story) and Gottfried work as mechanics; all share and share alike. But repair jobs are few, and it is always a question how long they can keep going. Otto's prize possession is a rattletrap car they call Karl, which looks only fit for the junk-pile but is actually a tenderly groomed greyhound of the road. Besides drinking, their favorite sport is to cruise along in Karl till they find a swank car, then lure it into a race.

One of these occasions introduces them to Pat, a beautiful girl who is also a good sport. All three are much taken with her, but Robert is completely bowled over.

He embarks on a shy, secretive courtship, and much to his surprise makes headway fast. He tries to keep his affair a secret from his friends, but long before Pat comes to live with him they know all about it. Pat has a secret of her own--tuberculosis. She and Robert go off for a honeymoon vacation by the sea; one day she has a bad hemorrhage. Robert telephones his pals; they round up a doctor, get him there in a hair-raising ride. That time Pat pulls through, but her days are numbered. When winter comes she has to go to a sanatorium in the mountains.

Meantime the comrades' affairs have not been going well. Business is so bad they have to sell the garage. Robert goes back to his old job of playing the piano in a prostitutes' bar. One day Gottfried is shot down on the street by a Nazi. Otto and Robert comb the city for the murderer, but someone else gets him first. An alarming telegram comes from Pat and Otto motors Robert to the sanatorium. Pat is dying, but it is a costly place to die in, and her money is almost gone. Otto goes back to Berlin, sells his beloved Karl, wires Robert the money. A little while later Pat dies in Robert's arms.

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