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The Black Obelisk

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The Black Obelisk

By: Erich Maria Remarque
Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
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About this listen

A hardened young veteran from the First World War, Ludwig now works for a monument company, selling stone markers to the survivors of deceased loved ones. Though ambivalent about his job, he suspects there's more to life than earning a living off other people's misfortunes.

A self-professed poet, Ludwig soon senses a growing change in his fatherland, a brutality brought upon it by inflation. When he falls in love with the beautiful but troubled Isabelle, Ludwig hopes he has found a soul who will offer him salvation - who will free him from his obsession to find meaning in a war-torn world.

But there comes a time in every man's life when he must choose to live - despite the prevailing thread of history horrifically repeating itself.

©1998 Erich Maria Remarque (P)2018 Recorded Books Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction War & Military War

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Not as amazing as the first two books, but worth it in it's own way. Tells the story of a group of ex-WW1 soldiers just bumbling along in the interwar period with no real aim in life, having been turned into soldiers then turned loose with nowhere to go. Follows their integration into society after 'The Way Back'. Some characters are completely broken, some are functioning but have internal strife, all are close brotherly comerades, all are aimless and deal with the calamity of life with often hilarious dry wit, and really it's about nothing at all other than just surviving the economic hardships of the postwar treaties. Sometimes this book moved me to tears, other times I laughed to tears. The narration initially stuck me as boring, until the acerbic dry wit became obvious, and it suited the tone really well. Unfortunately it's about half the volume it should be.

Definitely worth a credit

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Honestly, this is probably the best audiobook I've ever listened to. The novel itself is great (my favourite of Remarque's) and the narration is spot on. It's a moving and at-times hilarious insight into 1920s German society filled with very likeable characters.

Fantastic

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Perhaps in spite of its ample black humour, this book is the most pessimistic of Remarque's work in the sense that he has used the loss of nearly everything as the theme of this literary masterpiece. Yes, nearly everything, because at the end of the book what remains is narrator's kindly remembrance of his friends whom he 'never saw again'. One might complain that the ending is somewhat abrupt, but this is not the only time Remarque ends work in similar fashion.

Remarque is not a writer who tosses nuggets of morality or facts at the reader like a kitchen wench throwing crumbs to a bumnch of hungry hens. No, by Petronius! Every event in the book is a case of decline and decay that results fromm the break-down of social norms however faulty they may have been. We are too much dependent on the norms of our own making, we can break them of course without bothering to replace them with better ones, or worse, replace them with those of the savage and call it revolution. This happened in Germany after the Great War, and it would have happened in any country that lost it whatever its traditions were. But, the victors did rub their hands with moral glee murmuring it could only happen there!

In the midst of this awful disintergration sad, mad and bad are tossed about in a whirl triggered by traders be they legal or illegal racketeers.

In this day-long night of grey streaked with black, few brilliant flashes of civilised humanity light up a few faces, a bit of warmth shown in their own way, old Frau Kroll, the shiny pate of George, Gerda Schneider, but not many more. Perhaps I am not fair to Bodo and Willi, never mind, I'm not a book keeper of goodness!

I recommend this book warmly.

In my view, a reader who speaks with a Middle-European accent would have suited better to the task. Pronunciation of some German words could have been better.

What could endure in hell on earth.

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There is not much to say about the book itself - it is yet again another Remarque’s masterpiece.

But why , oh why, did Audible choose a 70 year old man to narrate a book told by a 20-something year old. Accentuated endings, put up sarcastic / cynical tone which had got nothing to do with feelings of a nearly teenager back from the war, overly theatrical performance have almost made this edition unlistenable. Just compare to the stellar performance of the narrator of Audible’s all quiet on the western front. Can’t be more different.

Masterpiece nearly ruined by the narrator

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