Remarquable

WAR--Ludwig Renn--Dodd, Mead ($2.50).

To Author Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front (TIME, June 17) so similar is Author Renn's War that comparisons of the two will be inevitable.

Author Renn begins with the 1914 advance through Belgium. "We" cross rivers, take towns, shoot rifles. Deep in France, shells displace bullets and flying shrapnel forces "us" to dig into the earth. Bang! rat-a-tat! whack! bang! "My" friend crawls under sheet. Showers of sparks on the ground, then Crash!--a dark brown cloud over the front line. There is a curious noise close by. Something moves under the sheet. A jagged hole in it appears. Boo-oom!--pat-pat-pat! The ground shakes. Gas. Shrieks. Four years of this. Escape: death, a wound, a breakdown, intoxication, an occasional stolen feast. In 1918 comes disintegration, lack of coordination between common soldier and superior, retreat, final defeat.

Comparing Authors Renn and Remarque, most readers will decide that, despite their obvious similarity, Author Renn, thicker-skinned through a blind patriotism, has not the subjective depth of Author Remarque. In comparison, War will seem psychologically shallow, less moving.