The Black Obelisk: A Novel

Wonderful book, one of my favorites of all time

I think this is one of the finest comedic novels ever written; I had read it years ago and thought it wonderul and now, as part of my study of Germany between the world wars, I reread it. It seems even better now. I intend to go on and reread his other novels of the period, including Three Comrades and Arch of Triumph.

Have to read it . It is funny and smart book. Author is great writer.Wonderful book and very funny.

I would have given this 5 stars except that after reading the book in German, I realized this translation has been edited quite a lot. It appears that some of the more "racy" parts have been omitted, unfortunate since they include some of the most humorous and interesting passages. Since the translation is from the 1950s, I suppose this should not come as a great surprise as that kind of editing would have been commonplace in a novel intended to reach a wide audience. The book is, as many others here have noted, a wonderful piece of black comedy.

Every book by this writer is terrific. All are different. This one is funny and insightful.He's an amazing writer.

The BEST roman of Remarque. Everybody should read it, especially at age 15-20.

Great author. Immortal novel.

After few world war II novels he wrote, Remarque went back to hyper-inflation Weimar Republic in his home town Osnabruck.(although he used different name ,but we know that it's thin disguise). Protagonist of the book is Ludwig Bodmer ; 25 year old war veteran who works in his comrade Georg Kroll's tombstone company. While reading the book, it's not hard to know that Bodmer is no other than Remarque himself and book itself is successful and fabulously rich author's nostalgic auto- biography. Although aspiring to be poet, Ludwig's life is full of every day drab reality which is only worsens time passes mostly by nightmarish and surreal hyper inflation and political unreset derived from it. the only real or unreal part of his life is sunday mass in a local mental asylum where Ludwig works as an organ player for the sake of not only a bottle of wine but also aberration from his trivial existence.There is a clear demarcation line here between Ludwig's everyday life and his time with inmmate Genevieve Terhoben a.k.a Isabell. Some readers will find the dialogue between two are utterly meaningless and a bit down part of the book however, I find their series of dialogue and Remarque's intentional description of Ludwig's behavior after brief meeing with Isabelle truly makes him more than a writer of "Trivial Literature" ,since there is fairly skillful usage of contrast .Moreover, the part truly evokes the nostalgia and melancholy of lost time. In speaking of Remarque's use of contrast is not limited in Ludwig's life , but also between various charaters. Georg and Heinrich Kroll,Bambus and Hungermann,Isabel and Genevive, Wernicke and Bodendick.One of the strongest point of this work is its humor and lively but bizzare characters as well as his skill to let characters develop themselves. That really works in this work. the other good point is that the this work encompasses the gamut of "ordinary" German live in a small city during the tumultous time so vividly.There are a couple episode that duly shows how terrible the notorous Weimar inflation was. Irony also works quite well. Shamful urinating of ex-non com Knopf on Black Obelisk symbolizes the true reason of demise of once stable Wilhelmian society .Also,the last deal Ludwig makes on Black Obelisk contains Remarque's sarcasm on modern Germany. The epilogue also shows how Remarque was throughly disillusioned by post-wwII Germany. The book has no prominent plot ,but as I said earlier it does not need any plot, because it was nothing other than the author's auto-biography. It's a very fine work and I strongly believe that it is Remarque's best work. It is unjustly underrated work ,so are all other Remarque's work. Read it. you won't regret .