Borrowed Life is one of Remarque’s most moving and piercing novels. Deep immersion in the emotional experiences of the heroes, bright hopeless love, doom and a passionate desire to live - the novel makes you take a fresh look at life values.
Singer of the "lost generation"
Erich Maria Remarque is a German writer and author of fourteen novels dedicated to the "lost generation." The generation that survived the war and lost health, strength, faith in life and the future on it. Among the most famous are Three Comrades, Arc de Triomphe. “Life on Borrowing” - the writer’s twelfth novel. Later, the author changed the name to “Heaven Doesn't Know Pets, ” however, the Russian translation of the book is better known under the original title. The action of the novel takes place in the Alps and in post-war France.
main characters
Clerfe - a famous race car driver, the protagonist of the novel;
Lilian Dunkirk is a young woman with tuberculosis. He is undergoing treatment in a sanatorium in the Alps, the main character of the novel;
Holman is a formerly renowned racer, partner Clerfe. Ill with tuberculosis, undergoing treatment in a sanatorium in the Alps. Not a central character.
Boris Volkov is a close friend of Lilian. Ill with tuberculosis, undergoing treatment in a sanatorium in the Alps.
In the sanatorium of Montana
Clerfe rides from the races in which he participated. He is going to visit his friend Holman, who has been undergoing treatment for tuberculosis in the Alpine mountains for a year now. On the road, he notices a malfunction in his old race car and tries to figure out the reasons. At the same time, the sound of the engine scares the horses harnessed to the sled, which appeared on the road at the same time. Clerfe stops frightened animals, but no thanks are expected from the man who rules the sleigh, nor from the woman sitting in the sleigh. However, Clerfe in a short time manages to notice that the woman is young and beautiful.
Having reached the sanatorium, Clerfe meets with a friend. Holman, who spent the year in the Alps, yearns for racing and race cars. Talking with Holman, Clerfe notices how the same sledges approach the sanatorium, and again meets with the woman and finds out that her name is Lilian Dunkirk, and the man is her close friend Boris Volkov. Both of them are also sick and undergo treatment in a sanatorium.
That day, a friend of Lilian died, and the girl could not be left alone. After dinner, she met with Holman and Clerfe in an attempt to find some kind of society and to avoid the loneliness that especially put pressure on her that evening. Clerfe and Lilian spent the evening together at a local hotel bar.
The next day, Clerfe sent a gift to Lilian white orchids - the most beautiful flowers he bought in a local shop. However, when Lilian saw them, she was horrified: these were the very orchids that she, having written out from another city, laid on the coffin of her friend. Not knowing how these flowers again came to her, Lillian considered this a bad sign and was very scared. The misunderstanding quickly became clear: the crematorium workers took the flowers and resold them at the local flower shop. However, the incident itself deeply wounded a thin sensitive girl.
Lilian and the rider met every night. However, such a regime was not welcomed in the sanatorium, as it adversely affected the poor health of tuberculosis patients. About this Lilian once said the director of the hospital. In response, Lillian refused to continue treatment and decided to leave the Alps and return to her native Paris.
Volkov tried to dissuade the girl from the extravagant idea, sincerely in love with her and worried about her future. The attempt was unsuccessful. With a request to take her to Paris, Lillian turned to Clerfe.
Phantom freedom
Still on the way to Paris, Lillian feels that he is coming to life. He does not wait for death, does not live every day, as if serving a heavy duty, but lives, feeling fully the colors, smells and movements around him.
Upon returning, the girl takes all her money that was in custody of her uncle, and plunges headlong into a free, full of pleasures life. She does not think about the future — she does not have a future — and enjoys every day she is given. She settles in a hotel, buys iplati and many expensive outfits, visits all the interesting places in Paris. Clerfe does not prevent this. He is also a man who lives one day - from race to race.
Relations break up when Clerfe leaves for negotiations and signing a contract for the next competition. Away from Lillian, he begins to think that their relationship was fleeting and should not be continued. Having made such a conclusion, he decides that the relationship with the girl is completed and only sometimes remembers her. However, in a short time, fate again brings him to Paris, where the driver, upon seeing the renewed, transformed Lilian, realizes that he was making hasty conclusions. His feelings come back and become even stronger.
But Lillian does not want to spend time, which she already has a little, on torment and routine. She wants to live in full force. Therefore, she does not respond when Clerfe confesses her love. However, she does not stop relations with him. Lovers live in the same hotel and spend a lot of time together.
Clerfe will participate in the races of Targa Florio in Sicily. On the island of Lilian and Clerfe go together. They are rarely seen here: he is always busy preparing for competitions, she is waiting for him in the villa. Hobbies Clerfe Lillian does not share. Racing does not seem to her a serious occupation, and she does not understand how to risk her life for such insignificant reasons. In addition, she sees in them childish bragging.
Clerfe gets injured during the race. He needs time to recover, and he offers Lilian to go on a trip to Europe, until he is ready to return to his main occupation. But the girl replies that he had better go alone, and she would wait for him in Paris. In fact, she decides to end the relationship. Duties and affections weigh on her. Instead of Paris, she goes to Rome, and then to Venice. This city became fatal for her. A humid, windy city provokes the rapid development of the disease. Lilian has bleeding. She understands that she has very little left, but does not say anything about this to Clerfe. Pity, condescension and care weigh on her.
And Klerfe unsuccessfully looking for a sweetheart. Realizing that his efforts are in vain, he tries to live his life, but loses interest in the environment and in life itself. And life brings them together again. Clerfe meets Lillian in Paris quite by accident. The girl does not tell him about the real state of her health.
To tie Lilian to himself, the racer offers her a hand and a heart. Moreover, he received an offer to sell cars, that is, a more stable future loomed ahead and the opportunity to leave racing sport that Lillian did not like so much. But this is exactly what makes the difference between them even stronger. Clerfe now looks to the future, which Lillian does not have. She insists on postponing the wedding until next year, because she knows that she will not live to see it.
Clerfe looks forward with ever greater hope. He plans to tidy the house on the Riviera. Losing the casino makes him angry, although the money and its amount have never before been valuable to him. He wants to live and plans this life.
But Lillian does not want to plan anything. She had very little left, and the biggest problem for her was that boredom and routine would penetrate into this last stage of her life. For her, there is no point in everyday life. And she again decides to escape from the groom.
