The qualities which distinguish Remarque as a writer are abundantly displayed in "Three Comrades." Simplicity and strength, humor and tenderness, a poet's sensitive reactions both to the things that are tangible and to those that are not—all these have been united in his work from the beginning, but to them there is added now, I think, a growing power of characterization. The people of "Three Comrades" are more fully depicted than those of Remarque's two earlier books, and there is evident for the first time the power to build up the story of the unfolding of a human relationship—for "Three Comrades" has for its focus one of the most poignant love stories that have been told in our time.

The development of that story is definitely a new achievement for Remarque. Looking back on "All Quiet" and "The Road Back," it is the perfection of certain...