Word: obelisk
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...beer gardens. The book has many moments of Rabelaisian vulgarity, including a hilarious bordello scene, but they seem deliberately injected for shock value. As for the symbolism and the irony (though Remarque says no symbolism was intended), they could scarcely be more obvious-the most valuable stone, a black obelisk, winds up as the marker over a prostitute's grave, and in a post-World War II epilogue, only the madhouse and the maternity hospital are left undamaged. Remarque has long ago mastered a direct, insistent style that keeps the pages turning even when he seems all but mesmerized...
...BLACK OBELISK (434 pp.)-Erich Maria Remarque - Harcourt, Brace...
...tranquillity result in a strange sort of book. The atmosphere is as febrile as a manic ward on the upbeat. The poor and aged commit suicide every day, but the tombstone firm does not prosper because the monuments are worth more than they are sold for. The characters in Obelisk are not especially odd, but the times make everyone seem to be living off the top of his head. Ludwig divides his time between beautiful Geneviève at the insane asylum and a levelheaded, strong-bodied girl acrobat who wants a man able to buy some groceries...
...other for $14,000-a-month alimony (which she can collect for only one year under Islamic law). In exile in Rome, leering and prancing as usual, Farouk told friends that he will deny everything (through a Syrian lawyer, because no Egyptian attorney will touch him with a 10ft. obelisk) and will ask the court to order Narriman to return to him and little ex-King Faud...