Clerfay fills up his car at a gas station. A boy named Hubert Goering, pouring gasoline, recognizes him as a racing driver. Clerfe's car scares the horses pulling the sleigh with a man and a woman. The main character stops the animals and helps them calm down.

Clerfay's former partner, Holman, is being treated for tuberculosis at the Montana sanatorium. The latter is happy to see his friend and the Giuseppe racing car, in which he raced more than ten times. Holman advises his friend to stay at the Palace Hotel. There the heroes meet the man from the sleigh - Russian emigrant Boris Volkov. His companion, Lilian Dunkirk, is acting very agitated because of the death of her friend, Agnes Somerville.

Lilian is Belgian. She is twenty-four years old. For four of them she lives in the Montana sanatorium. The girl fell ill during the war due to constant malnutrition and flight from the Nazis. At night, Lilian leaves the sanatorium with Clerfay for the Palace Hotel. At the bar she wants to order vodka, but main character suggests limiting yourself to light wine. At the Palace Hotel, Clerfay learns about the death of a racer he recently knew who crashed. Boris comes to the bar - he wants Lilian to return to the sanatorium with him. After seeing the girl off, Clerfe walks around the outskirts of Montana, where he comes across a crematorium. The hero buys lilacs and orchids for Lilian from the father of the guy who works there. In the morning, Holman rides the Giuseppe. Lilian scolds Clerfay for pushing his friend to do a reckless act. The girl recognizes the orchids she received as the flowers she ordered from Zurich for Agnes’s funeral. Frightened Lilian finds nothing better than to call Clerfay. The latter finds orchids in the snow and guesses about the dark business of the crematorium employees.

Old man Richter, who has lived in Montana for the last twenty years, loves to play chess. His regular partner, the Frenchman Rainier, recently died. No one tells Richter about this, so as not to upset him. The oldest patient at the sanatorium offers Lililan to teach her how to play chess.

At night in the Mountain Hut, Clerfay jokingly invites Lilian to go to Paris together. The girl agrees seriously. Volkov doesn’t want to let her go. The head doctor of the sanatorium scolds Lilian for going out at night, and is very surprised when he learns that the patient has decided to leave the sanatorium. He asks her to stay, but at five in the morning the girl leaves with Clerfe. The entire “Montana” comes out to see Lilian off.

Having descended from the mountains, Clerfay and Lilian travel by train, straight to Giuseppe's, most spending time in the railway tunnel. On back side They are waiting for rain and fog, which the girl really likes. In Ascona, Clerfay hugs Liliane.

In Paris, Lilian settles in the first hotel that caught her eye, the Relay Bisson. The girl visits Uncle Gaston, her father’s older brother. She asks to give the money owed to her. The eighty-year-old man is afraid that his niece will throw them away. In the evening, Clerfay and Liliane have dinner at the Grand Vefour restaurant. They talk about love and freedom.

Clerfe spends two weeks in Rome. He returns to Paris with his mistress, Lydia Morelli. In Rome, Lilian seems to Clerfay not those who know life, a demanding teenager.

Lillian buys four fashionable suits from Balenciaga. She chooses models so well that Balenciaga himself comes to look at her. The senior saleswoman offers the girl a dazzlingly beautiful silver dress for next to nothing.

Uncle Gaston is horrified by his niece's spending. At the restaurant, he tries to force diet food on her, but Lillian orders sea urchins.

In the chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, surrounded by the light pouring on her, Lilian feels happy. The girl hangs the dresses she received from Balenciaga around the room. Exquisite outfits comfort her at night and relieve her of nightmares.

Returning to Paris, Clerfay sees that Lilian has grown from a teenager into a beautiful, confident young woman. At the Gran Vefour restaurant, Lilian meets Lidia Morelli. Clerfe hopes that the girl will be jealous, but she is mistaken - main character there is no time for negative feelings. In the garden of the Palais Royal, a man confesses his love to Lilian. While waiting for the cars, Lydia and Lillian exchange barbs. The latter emerges from the conversation as the winner.

Clerfay is afraid of losing Lilian, but the girl herself invites him to the hotel. The heroes spend the night together.

Uncle Gaston throws a dinner in honor of his niece. He dreams of marrying her off. The rich bachelor Viscount de Pestres accompanies Lilian to the hotel. The girl spends the entire evening and night with Clerfe. They walk around Paris, go to restaurants and cabarets.

Because of Lydia, who calls her in her room and tells her to get out of Paris, Lilian decides to move to the Ritz. The next day, the heroes go to Sicily for the Targa Florio race. Clerfay places Lilian in the villa of his friend, the owner of the Levalli flotilla. One day the owner organizes a holiday, which attracts guests from all over Italy.

As soon as Clerfay starts thinking about Lilian at the races, he immediately loses his tire. The car is carried off the road, the hero dislocates his arm. Torriani replaces him, but on the last lap the guy suffers heatstroke. Clerfay finishes racing with a sore shoulder. Lillian is furious at the hero's recklessness. Suddenly she realizes that nothing in the world disappears without a trace, but only undergoes a series of transformations. Along with her love for Clerfay, Lilian comes to the realization that she will soon leave him.

The girl leaves the racer in Palermo, and for the first time in her life she flies on a plane to Rome. From there she goes to Venice, without saying anything to Clerfay. At the local theater, Lillian starts bleeding. Young gigolo Mario helps her get to the hotel. Lilian spends a week in bed while Clerfay searches in vain for her in Paris and loses his temper, thinking that she has abandoned him.

In Paris, a girl lives alone for several days - she wants to regain her strength in order to appear healthy and be able to enjoy life again. Lilian makes her first visit after recovery to Uncle Gaston to take some of her money from him.

Clerfay finds Liliane in the window of the Relay Bisson Hotel. A girl sits on the windowsills and eats shrimp. The racer asks her to marry him. Lilian asks to leave everything as it is. After an evening walk, Clerfet sees the girl off to the hotel and says that she needs to rest. As soon as the hero leaves, Lilian goes to Boulevard Saint-Michel. Clerfay finds her in a cafe in the company of the hungry poet Gerard.

A week later, Clerfay goes to the Mille Milia, a thousand-mile race across Italy. On Avenue George the Fifth, Lilian meets the Viscount de Pestra. They drink coffee and follow the race on a portable radio. In Bisson, Lilian receives two telegrams from Clerfay and one from Holman from Montana. Protier brings her the receiver. Thinking about the pointlessness of racing, Lillian begins to suspect that she made a mistake when she left the sanatorium.

Clerfe is waiting for a telegram from his beloved. Lilian calls Holman to find out how Boris is. Holman says he will be released soon. Viscount de Pestres invites Lilian to become his mistress. In a cafe on the Boulevard Saint-Michel, the poet Gerard unravels the girl's secret. On the street, Lillian finds a dead woman. Gerard accompanies the heroine to the hotel. In the morning, Lilian calls Clerfay - he came sixth out of five hundred participants.

Clerfay takes the girl to his small villa. Lillian doesn't like the boring house. At the casino, Clerfay wins by betting on “red” nine times in a row. Prince Fiola tells Lillian that before the war, Boris Volkov won by rolling “black” thirteen times and the number thirteen. Clerfay is jealous. Lillian plays "thirteen, black." In the morning, the girl realizes that Clerfe is afraid not of Volkov, but of her death. Lilian decides to leave the man after the end of the races in Monte Carlo.

"Life on Borrow" talks about the "lost generation" main topic A remarque that runs through all of his major works. The echo of war that sounds in each of the heroes who survived this war in one way or another. Echoes of the past haunt the heroes even now, each of whom has their own destiny. So Clerfay does auto racing in pursuit of adrenaline. Parted in home country Boris Volkov lives in exile. Liliane Dunkirk, a twenty-four-year-old Belgian woman, has been sick with tuberculosis for a long time.
The action begins on an Alpine road, where Clerfay, heading to his old friend Holman at the Montana sanatorium, frightens the horse-drawn carriage carrying the young girl Lilian Dunkirk with the roar of the engine. The race car driver tries to help the driver, but he sharply refuses. The crew was managed by Boris Volkov, who immediately took a dislike to Clerfay. Boris and Lilian are united by a fatal illness that brought them together in Montana, where they have been living for several years.
Clerfay gets to the sanatorium. Here he is talking to Holman. Friends share stories with each other about their current lives. Thus, Holman talks about life within the walls of a sanatorium, which looks extremely attractive to an outsider, but the guests among themselves speak of it as nothing less than a prison. Leaving Montana is extremely dangerous for them; any cold can lead to death.
Holman, in the recent past, was a racer like Clerfay, so he asks his friend about his current profession. Clerfay deliberately lies about being unsuccessful in his endeavors, because... knows it will bring some joy to Holman. In fact, Clerfay is at the peak of his career.
Lillian joins the conversation. Together, all three decide, despite the prohibitions, to go to the Palace Bar, located nearby. A conversation takes place between Lilian and Clerfe about life and death. Lillian lost her friend Agnes Somerville, who lived with her in the sanatorium, and now death seems more real to her than ever.
Clerfay believes that the profession of a racer is akin to a fatal disease, because... These are games with death and any day can be the last. Quite recently he lost his workmate, but in this case he considers his death rather a deliverance, because... had he remained alive, betrayal and shame would have awaited him, as the husband of an unfaithful wife. Clerfay knows that his wife cheated on his friend, and after he had an accident and lost his leg, she did not even visit him. After the death of the racer, the widow did not care about anything except the money owed to her.
Lillian categorically disagrees with this, considering any life, even the most miserable one, is better than death. Boris appears and persuades Lillian to return to Montana.
After parting, Clerfay comes across a local crematorium and, in a shop nearby, buys orchids for Lilian. Having received the flowers, the girl recognizes them as the ones she bought for Agnes’s funeral. Clerfay guesses that the crematorium employees resell funeral flowers.
An old resident of the sanatorium, Richter, is a big fan of chess games. He cannot find a partner to play with because... his friend, the Frenchman Rainier, has passed away, but no one tells him about this, so as not to injure him.
Some time later, he invites Lillian to leave the sanatorium and go with him to Paris. Clerfay is not entirely serious, but Lilian is determined. The girl decided that it was better to live one very short life in Paris than to remain within the walls of a sanatorium for a long time.
Doctors and Volkov dissuade Lillian, but to no avail. The girl goes to Big world. While traveling by train, she and Clerfe find themselves in heavy fog and rain, which delights her.
Upon arrival in the capital of France, the girl meets with her father's brother in order to receive the money due to her. The old man fears that she will squander all the money on useless things, but Lillian gets her way. The first serious purchase is beautiful evening dresses.
Gaston, Lilian's uncle criticizes her excessive spending, at a table in a restaurant he tells her about the benefits of dietary food for a girl in her condition, but she refuses to listen. Lillian felt truly happy. She hangs the purchased outfits around the room at night. Luxurious things help her escape from reality.
Clerfay considers Lilian to be a very young, capricious teenager. For two weeks he needs to go to Italy, where he reconnects with Lidia Morelli, with whom they were lovers. Returning to Paris with Lydia, the race car driver does not recognize yesterday’s girl, who has turned into a wealthy girl in the capital. Having a mistress does not make her jealous. Life is too short to waste it on stupid grievances, so Lillian reasons.
Clerfay confesses his love to a young Belgian woman. They spend that night together in Lilian's hotel room. A relationship begins between the young people.
Gaston throws a reception in honor of Lilian, the purpose of which is to match the girl with a rich groom. He is interested in the union of a young relative and the Viscount de Pestres. But she is not interested in this, she is not going to marry for convenience, because... she needs emotions here and now. We need to live.
Together with Clerfe, she goes to Sicily, to the site of the upcoming races. During the race, Clerfay loses a tire, the car skids and the driver gets a dislocated arm. He cannot continue the race. The young man who replaced him is also unable to complete the race due to deteriorating condition. There is one lap left until the finish. Clerfay decides to continue the competition with a sore arm. Lillian is extremely indignant at this reckless decision.
The girl goes to Italy on her own, without telling Clerfay about it. There she visits the theater, where she starts bleeding. The girl is forced to spend the next seven days in a hotel. Clerfe does not know about the whereabouts of his beloved, he is visited by thoughts that she has abandoned him.
Upon returning to Paris, Lilian lives alone for several days, not showing herself to anyone. She hopes to regain her strength so that the attack of the disease goes unnoticed. Finally she visits Uncle Gasson to get more money.
Finally, Clerfay finds her at the Relay Bisson Hotel. He is happy to meet and offers her his hand and heart. She asks him to wait about a year, realizing that she will not live this period. A week later, Clerfay goes to a thousand-mile race in Italy. He sends a telegram to Lillian from the races. For the first time, the girl begins to think about the correctness of her decision to leave the sanatorium. From a phone call she learns that Clerfay finished sixth out of large number participants.
Together they visit the racing driver's villa, but Lilian is bored there. They play roulette at the local casino. The girl learns that Boris Volkov visited this place before the war and won by betting on “thirteen black.” She makes the same bet, which causes jealousy on the part of Clerfay.
The theme of death awaiting a person does not let her go. She doesn't understand why young men like Clerfay take risks with our own lives for the sake of racing. Quarrels occur between lovers, but they are always followed by reconciliation. The girl has been sick for some time, but hides it. Soon there will be a race in Monte Carlo and Lilian decides to leave Clerfay at the end.
Clerfay continues to perform. During a race in Monte Carlo, he crashes to his death. Lilian witnesses how the racer's sister, who arrived after her brother's death, tries to benefit financially from what happened.
Lilian is taken to Montana by Boris Volkov, who arrived as soon as he learned about what had happened. On the way to the sanatorium, they meet Holman, who pulled out a truly lucky ticket, having recovered from his illness. The former patient intends to take Clerfay's vacant position.
After spending six weeks in a sanatorium, Lilian Duncan dies.

Book lover/film club: Books by Erich Maria Remarque. Part Two - “Life on Borrow”

The second novel by Erich Remarque that I read was “Life on Borrow.” It was published under this name in 1959 in the Hamburg magazine Kristall. Before the release of a separate edition in 1961, Remarque changed the title to “The Sky Knows No Favorites,” however, in the Russian translation the first version of the title is traditionally preserved, since it was made by L. B. Chernaya in 1960 based on a magazine text.

In 1977, the novel was filmed by Sydney Pollack under the title “Bobby Deerfield” (this is how the name of the main character, played by Al Pacino, was changed in the script); I watched the film on the Internet.

Poster for the film "Bobby Deerfield"

From Nikolai Nadezhdin’s book about Remarque: “In July 1959 in Hamburg literary magazine“Crystal” a new novel by the writer “Heaven Knows No Favorites” has been published...

The love story of a girl named Ruth, hopelessly ill with tuberculosis, and race car driver Clerfay was recognized by critics as Remarque's most unsuccessful novel. This opinion still exists today. But...read this novel. This is a subtle, sad, magical work, where Remarque acts as a master of lyrical prose.

This novel is not about war or emigration. This is a novel about a fragile life that is trying to break through, to climb out of the tenacious clutches of death. A novel about a professional racing driver - like one of the destinies unlived by the writer. A novel about the frailty of existence and inevitable extinction.

After this book, there was talk in the literary world that Remarque had “written himself out.” That his talent is fading. And that his best works have already been written and there is no point in waiting for any discoveries.

However, critics made an unforgivable mistake. Ahead was the novel “Night in Lisbon,” one of Remarque’s strongest works. But nevertheless, the writer felt a certain cooling of reader interest after the publication of “Heaven”. The book sold a relatively small number of copies and did not bring in much money.”

Personally, I liked the novel “Life on Borrow.” The film is also good.

P.S. For travel lovers, the settings in this novel are Switzerland, France (Paris and the Cote d'Azur), Italy (Rome, Milan, Venice and the Sicily Peninsula) and Monaco.

Stills from the film by Sydney Pollack

Quotes from the work “Life on Borrow”:

The fireworks have gone out, why rummage through the ashes?

Whoever wants to hold on loses, and whoever can let go with a smile, they try to hold on to him.

If you want to live somewhere, then you want to die there.

There must be another life, unknown to me, which speaks the language of books, paintings and music, awakens anxiety in me, beckons me...

You can be envied. You are starting all over again. Retaining the ardor of youth, but losing its helplessness.

“I will stand at many more windows,” she thought. - And these will be windows into life!

Love, like time, is irreversible. And neither sacrifices, nor readiness for anything, nor good will - nothing can help; such is the dark and merciless law of love.

Look at the sky. It's already dawn. Can you hear the birds singing? In cities they can only be heard at such times. Only after sitting all night in a restaurant and returning home at dawn can nature lovers enjoy the singing of blackbirds.

Why do they all necessarily want to change their lives? - thought Lilian. - Why do they strive to change what once helped them impress the woman they loved? Doesn't it occur to them that they might lose this woman?

Apparently, all the decisions I make in life are marked by fireworks, she thought bitterly. - Or maybe everything that happens to me is like these fireworks - like funny lights that immediately go out, turning into ashes and dust?

- I'm not leaving, Clerfe. I'm just not there sometimes.

- Why do you need to be understood? After all, you are leaving - isn’t that enough?

Reason is given to man so that he understands: it is impossible to live by reason alone. People live by feelings, and feelings don’t care who is right.

From Brescia to Brescia! Is it possible to imagine a more expressive symbol of meaninglessness? Nature has generously gifted people with miracles; she gave them lungs and hearts, gave them amazing chemical aggregates - liver and kidneys, filled their skulls with a soft whitish mass, more amazing than all the star systems of the Universe; Should a man really risk all this just so that, if he is lucky, he can rush from Brescia to Brescia?

In the thinnest evening dress, if it fits well, you cannot catch a cold, but it is easy to catch a cold in the dress that irritates you, or in the one whose double you see on another woman at the same evening.

“No,” he said quickly. - Not this. Stay friends? Plant a small garden on the cooled lava of faded feelings? No, this is not for you and me. This only happens after small affairs, and even then it turns out rather false. Love is not tarnished by friendship. The end is the end.

Courage is not the same as the absence of fear; the former involves the consciousness of danger, the latter the result of ignorance.

Dialogues:

“The place where you live has nothing to do with life itself,” he said slowly. “I realized that there is no place that would be so good that it would be worth throwing your life for. And there are almost no people for whom it would be worth doing this. Sometimes you reach the simplest truths in a roundabout way.
Lillian crumbled a piece of bread onto her plate.
“But when they tell you about it, it still doesn’t help.” Is it true?
- Yes, it doesn’t help. You have to experience it yourself. Otherwise it will always seem like you missed the most important thing.

- Are you here? Didn't go to a night restaurant and don't drink?
“I’ve lost my taste for such things.”
- Were you waiting for me?
“Yes,” said Clerfay. “Because of you, I will become terribly virtuous.” I don't want to drink anymore. Without you.

“I think I drank too much,” he said.
- What do you call too much?
- When you lose your sense of self.
- If so, I always want to drink too much. I don't love my self.

- How many years have we known each other?
- Four years. But with many problems.
- Yes, these years resemble moth-eaten brocade.
“It’s just that none of us wanted to be responsible for the other, each tried to get everything... without giving anything in return.”
- It’s not true - neither one nor the other.
“We were perfect for each other, Clerfay.”
“Like all the people who don’t fit into anything.” Yes?

“You learned a lot during the war.” Is it true?
- A lot. After all, there is almost always war.

“Look,” said Lillian. - When I see such pictures, I become envious. Family happiness. This is exactly what God wanted.
“If you had such luck, you would sneak away at the first parking lot.”

- Sometimes you are wise. And it scares me.
- I am not here, I am out. After all, these are all just words. You juggle them when you don’t have the strength to move on; Then you forget them again. They are like the splashes of a fountain: you listen to them for a while, and then you begin to hear something that cannot be expressed in words.

“You’re not talkative tonight.”
- Not really. I just don't say it.

- I only want the unrealistic. "..."
“Then you have nothing more to wish for,” she said. - You already have everything.

Does he want to imprison you again, although you have not yet learned what freedom is?
-What is freedom?
Clerfay smiled.
- I do not know either. I know only one thing: freedom is not irresponsibility and not a life without a goal. It is easier to understand what it is not like than what it is.

Life when you don’t regret anything, because, in essence, there is nothing left to lose.

A novel by the famous German writer Erich Maria Remarque. It was first published under this name in 1959 in the Hamburg magazine Kristall. The “focus” of the novel is the love of the race car driver Clerfe and the young woman Lilian, unfolding against the backdrop of the world that has come to Europe.

Lilian is sick with tuberculosis, for her every day is an eternity. A distinctive feature of “Life on Borrow” is the almost complete absence of any political context and concentration on the psychological component.

In 1961, before the release of a separate edition, the author changed the title of the book to “Heaven Knows No Favorites,” but in the Russian translation this novel still retains the first version of the title.

A short love story. A novel about loneliness, life and death.

The book "Life on Borrow" is full of subtle life philosophy. The main characters talk a lot about life, about love, about women and men, about the past, present and future. And the main thing is that all this needs to be appreciated, and appreciated today. They live by feelings and rejoice in what they have.

Summary

The main character of the book is racing driver Clerfe, who comes to the Montana sanatorium, located in the mountains, to visit his racing driver friend Holman. There he meets a young woman, Lilian Dunkirk, suffering from tuberculosis, who wants to escape from the sanatorium, go downstairs, and finally feel life. Clerfay introduces Lillian to Giusepe, his car, which excites Lillian's feelings with the growl of its engine, and later Lilian escapes - at her request, Clerfay takes her away from the sanatorium.

Lilian knows that she will soon die, since she is terminally ill, she is tired of being treated the “old-fashioned way” - peace, fresh air, sun. The author writes: “Life was something great for Lillian, and death was something great—they are not to be trifled with.”
And Lilian made attempts to play jokes with life, some of them were successful, she tried to fill her short life with them. Lilian is in a hurry to live, following only her feelings and desires, thoughtlessly and endlessly spending money on new dresses, restaurants, hotels, trips. She seeks to “celebrate the explosion of feelings”, to start “all over again - preserving the ardor of youth, but losing its helplessness.”

She is confident in her desires, dreams of a life like “light without shadow, happiness without regret, burning without ashes”, acquires “secret confidence in women’s charms”! After all, she doesn’t have long to live – she knows that.
Lilian also knows that Clerfe will live a long time, so he is now trying to earn more money and making plans for the future - for the future next to Lilian, he wants her to get medical treatment and live longer with him, in their common home, but...

Clerfay believes that the profession of a racer is akin to a fatal disease, because... These are games with death and any day can be the last. Quite recently he lost his workmate, but in this case he considers his death rather a deliverance, because... had he remained alive, betrayal and shame would have awaited him, as the husband of an unfaithful wife. Clerfay knows that his wife cheated on his friend, and after he had an accident and lost his leg, she did not even visit him. After the death of the racer, the widow did not care about anything except the money owed to her.
Lillian categorically disagrees with this, considering any life, even the most miserable one, is better than death.

While traveling by train, she and Clerfe find themselves in heavy fog and rain, which delights her. Upon arrival in the capital of France, the girl meets with her father's brother in order to receive the money due to her. The old man fears that she will squander all the money on useless things, but Lillian gets her way. The first serious purchase is beautiful evening dresses.

Clerfay confesses his love to a young Belgian woman. They spend that night together in Lilian's hotel room. A relationship begins between the young people.

Together with Clerfe, she goes to Sicily, to the site of the upcoming races. During the race, Clerfay loses a tire, the car skids and the driver gets a dislocated arm. He cannot continue the race. The young man who replaced him is also unable to complete the race due to deteriorating condition. There is one lap left until the finish. Clerfay decides to continue the competition with a sore arm. Lillian is extremely indignant at this reckless decision.

The girl goes to Italy on her own, without telling Clerfay about it. There she visits the theater, where she starts bleeding. The girl is forced to spend the next seven days in a hotel.

Clerfe does not know about the whereabouts of his beloved, he is visited by thoughts that she has abandoned him. Upon returning to Paris, Lilian lives alone for several days, not showing herself to anyone. She hopes to regain her strength so that the attack of the disease goes unnoticed.

Finally, Clerfay finds her at the Relay Bisson Hotel. He is happy to meet and offers her his hand and heart. She asks him to wait about a year, realizing that she will not live this period. A week later, Clerfay goes to a thousand-mile race in Italy. He sends a telegram to Lillian from the races. For the first time, the girl begins to think about the correctness of her decision to leave the sanatorium. From a phone call, she learns that Clerfe came to the finish line sixth out of a large number of participants. When they returned, they started dating again.

The race in Monte Carlo, the biggest competition of the year, was approaching. Clerfay was missing in training again.

The race track ran right through the city streets and was replete with sharp turns. Lillian sat in the stands, watching the cars go lap after lap. On the fortieth lap she decided to leave. Lilian had already bought a ticket to Türich. The train left the day after tomorrow, just when Clerfe was supposed to fly to Rome. Clerfay was second. Suddenly the leading car crossed the road and flooded the highway with oil. Unable to get around the puddle, Clerfe hesitated, and then the car following behind crushed his car. Clerfay's chest was crushed. Lillian heard about this as she was already coming down from the stands. She rushed to the hospital. Clerfe did not live to see the operation. He died without regaining consciousness.

The next day, Sister Clerfay, a dry and very practical lady, arrived in Monte Carlo. She did not communicate with her brother, who hated her. She arrived after learning about the death of Clerfe and smelling the smell of money. It soon turned out that Clerfay bequeathed a house on the Riviera to Lilian. The sister tried to force the girl to sign a waiver of the will, but she kicked the vixen out of her room.

Lillian died of hemorrhage six weeks after arriving at the sanatorium.

Life on Borrow – Erich Maria Remarque – summary novel updated: December 31, 2017 by: website

The author of the novels “Three Comrades”, “Arc de Triomphe” and many other wonderful works, knew how, like no one else, to talk about the most tragic aspects of life simply and succinctly. Remarque's books are dedicated to the inevitability of death and the price of true love. A summary of one of them, “Life on Borrow,” is the topic of this article.

Life and death

The main character of this novel is a twenty-four-year-old girl named Lilian. She is terminally ill. The last years of her life are connected with a man who can hardly understand her. Lillian is throwing money away. He is his life. The girl has very little left in stock. He has his whole life. He is not afraid of losing her and most of all loves to play with death. The summary (“Life on Borrow”) should begin with a description of the life of the main characters.

Lillian

It is not so easy to read a novel or watch a feature film about a person who is terminally ill. But the summary (“Life on Borrow”) for some reason makes me want to read the original of this work. Lilian Dunkern suffers from an incurable form of tuberculosis. The girl spends her last years in a sanatorium, which is located in one of the most picturesque places in the world - in the Alps. But how can you enjoy the beauty of nature when death is very close? Is it really possible to carry out last years in quiet solitude, when real life seething outside the hospital?

The summary (“Life on Borrow”) may not reveal the character of the main female character, but it will make you think about the eternal questions about why a person comes into this world and what he experiences when there is very little time left to enjoy the greatest gift. How can a person who is only twenty-four years old and above all else strives to live, in the full sense of the word, “live”?

Lillian came to terms with her diagnosis. All she hopes for is to experience as many exciting experiences as possible in recent years. And suddenly a forty-year-old racer appears on her way.

They have a lot in common. But later it turns out that his views are extremely different from her thoughts. And this is not surprising, because he is healthy...

Clerfay

In order to depict as clearly as possible tragic fate dying girl, the image of the racer Erich Maria Remarque was introduced into the novel. “Life on Borrow,” a summary of which is presented in this article, is dedicated to a short period in the life of Clerfay and Lilian.

The novel begins from the moment when a racing driver, heading to a sanatorium to visit his friend, meets along the way an unpleasant man, in his opinion. In company with this man is a young woman. Subsequently, Clerfe's acquaintance with this person will change all his plans.

Soul mates

This young woman turns out to be Lillian. Later, while visiting his friend Holman in a sanatorium, Clerfay meets a girl. Why did he depict such an interweaving of destinies in his novel? different people Remarque? “Life on Borrow,” a summary of which does not include quite important quotes from the work, may not answer this question. The fact is that at the first meeting, Lilian decided that Clerfe was exactly the person who could understand her. And only much later, outside the sanatorium, will she be offended by his cynical

But now, being within the walls of a comfortable hospital, she dreams of only one thing. Lillian realizes that she has very little time left. And she dreams of the last, brightest flash in her life. Meeting a young racing driver adds confidence in the implementation of her plan.

They look alike. Both Lilian and Clerfay have no future. He lives until the next car race. She - until the next bleeding.

What is the summary of the novel “Life on Borrow” by Remarque? The story of a young woman who is wasting the last years of her life, and a racer who has a lot to live, but is unable to appreciate it. What will the summary of the book “Life on Borrow” not give you an idea of? About how a German writer talentedly combined the destinies of two different people in his work, and with the help of this psychological technique, forcing readers around the world to think about the main value of a person - about life. Reviews of this book are clear. For half a century, Remarque's novel has not left readers indifferent. This work has been translated into all European languages. More than one feature film has been made based on it.

Life in Montana

At the invitation of her new acquaintance, Lilian leaves the sanatorium. But first it should be said what caused this reckless act. In recent years, Lilian did not want to live in the hospital. But she did not have enough determination to leave its walls. In addition, her friend was always nearby, the same gentleman, unpleasant in Clerfe’s eyes. This man's name was Boris Volkov. As for Lilian herself, a few words should be said about her life before her treatment at the sanatorium.

In this work, Remarque depicted the post-war years. “Life on Borrow,” a brief summary of which will follow, is a story about a girl in whose fate the consequences of the war played a fatal role. Lilian is Belgian. She miraculously managed to escape from the Nazis. But constant malnutrition during the war did not leave its mark on her health.

The sanatorium employs caring, highly qualified doctors. While staying here, the patient can hope that with the help of specialists his life will be extended by several years. But the smell of death is in the air of this establishment.

Clerfay gives Lilian flowers, and she recognizes them as the ones she placed on the coffin of her dead friend. On the first day of his arrival, the race car driver walks around the territory of the hospital and finds himself next to the entrance to the crematorium. All this leads to the fact that Clerfay invites Lilian to go with him to Paris. The girl, of course, accepts this proposal. And from this episode a summary should be presented in more detail (“Life on Borrow”). Erich Remarque, however, is a master of dialogue. Its idea cannot be fully understood without reading the work in its entirety.

In Paris

Clerfay and Lilian are heading to the French capital in his racing car. In Paris they stop at the first hotel they come across. A relative of the girl lives in the city - an eighty-year-old man named Gaston. This man is in possession of money that is legally due to Lillian. Feeling the unique smell of freedom that she had dreamed of for so long while in an Alpine sanatorium, the girl goes to her relative.

Having received the money, Lilian begins to spend it left and right. She goes into the most fashionable and expensive stores, buys herself an incredible number of dresses. At the restaurant she orders exotic dishes and elite wines. Gaston, witnessing such extravagance, is perplexed. But he knows nothing about the illness of his young relative, and she, in turn, does not want to darken her mood with sad news.

Why did Remarque call his work “Life on Borrow”? The novel, a summary of which is the topic of this article, depicts the psychological state of a person close to death. There is an opinion that it is in this state that people are able to understand the main thing in their lives and see what is not given to healthy people.

Teenage woman

At first, after the sanatorium, Clerfay sees Liliane as a spoiled, overly demanding teenager. He leaves Paris. And upon his return he will not recognize Lillian. In front of him is a beautiful, confident young woman. And Clerfe falls in love.

There is another one in the novel female image- Lydia Morelli. This woman is Clerfay's mistress, but he hopes in vain to see any signs of jealousy in Lilian's behavior. Life is too expensive for this girl. She does not have the opportunity to waste it on feelings and affection for another person.

In Rome

At one of the races, Clerfe is injured. But, despite this, he still continues to participate in the competition. It is at this moment that Lilian realizes that she will not be able to contain the feelings she has for Clerfay. And she leaves Paris.

In the capital of Italy, Lilian spends her time in the same spirit, visiting restaurants and theaters. She strives at all costs to get from life what she missed during the years of illness. And in the whirlpool of impressions and new acquaintances, she does not even attach importance to the fact that her scarlet has become completely scarlet with blood.

Death of Clerfay

During the days that Lilian was absent in Paris, the race car driver did not find a place for himself. He was waiting for a telegram from his beloved or any other news. And when she returned, the first thing he did was offer to become his wife. Lilian refused Clerfay. And later she decided to completely end all relations with him. They seemed too hopeless to her, given her incurable disease. But Clerfay Lilian did not have time to announce the breakup. In a cruel twist of fate, the man was in a car accident and died without regaining consciousness.

After Clerfay's death, Lilian returned to the sanatorium. But she only lived for a month and a half.