R egarding the effects of World War I on German youths who were caught up in the chaos, Paul Baumer asks, "What will happen afterwards?

And what shall become of us?" These questions furnish the social concerns for The Road Back, Remarque's second novel. In fact, as its title suggests, the novel relates what happens to Baumer's friends who survive the war and return to a home which, of course, they will find changed not only because of their own experiences and maturity, but also because of the war's effect on their country and civilization. Returning home, they see that their towns are besieged by socialist protesters who fire on their own people when demonstrations turn threatening; that inflation is rampant and food scarce except on the black market; and that the young ex-soldiers are indeed isolated from family, wives and sweethearts, and the...