[.ca] Arch of Triumph (ISBN 0786134674)

You feel like have been in Paris after reading this book:
It is true. Remarque's detailed and romantic style of describing Paris makes the book, even today a powerful guide to visit and enjoy Paris. It is a wonderful book to be recommended to someone who planes to visit Paris or surprise with a Calvados drink someone that had red the book. Also, dialogues Ravic-Joan and Morosow-Ravic are so powerful that doubtlessly make this book exceptionally enjoying and the story immortal.

One of the best books I've ever read:
'Arch of Triumph' is a book which becomes your friend, and you want to read it again, and each time you are discovering something else. It makes you think about what is really important in life, and at the same time it is a story about war, love, trust, friendship, humanity ...

Arch of Triumph:
Best book ever about people that have to leave their countries en try their luck elswhere. It's frightfully true & if you know the present u'll see that nothing is changed in Europe sinds WW II.

Answers the question: What do we live our lives for?:
The struggles of a brilliant surgeon who is also an illegal refugee in pre-WWII Paris are the subject of this fine work of fiction. As Dr.Ravic scrapes together some meaning and purpose for his shadow existence, the reader begins to understand why his determined faith in the human spirit gives him the will to persist as European civilization seems about to collapse around him. A story of great love, impossible revenge, and greater justice, this book may be a guide to those whose personal struggles against forces in today's destructive culture seem overwhelming.

An old favorite of mine.:
An old favorite of mine. A friend asked me to recommend a Remarque novel. We discussed 'All Quiet...'. My reply follows: 'Sure, in fact one of my favorites of Remarque's books is a thinly veiled portrait of Marlene Dietrich; or rather the intertwining of her life with his in Paris at the eve the period up to war in Europe, the year before the WW2 broke out.--- The English title is 'Arch of Triumph'. Like with all Remarque's books, the title is full of irony, and undercurrents of double meanings. Naturally, the book is not officially about Marlene, but she is hard to miss. Rather the book is personal,and has a good amount of autobiographical flavor. Yet, it is a captivating and suspenseful novel. Like the two protagonists in the novel, Remarque and Dietrich were themselves at a desparate point in their lives in 1939. Side comment: I am afraid that a lot is lost in the translation of Remarque's books. He only wrote in German, even when he lived in the US. In any case, Remarque is a master of a suspenseful openings, in his novels. This one does not disapoint! Lots of his books are about refugee life of sorts. Another of Remarque's novels I often return to is 'Night in Lisbon', and it is again about escape from a Europe at high noon, just as Europe is going up in flames before WW2.' Review by Palle Jorgensen, September 2004.