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Title: Bridge at Andau by James A. Michener ISBN: 0-449-21050-2 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 1988 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.48 (21 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Rest of the Soviet Story: Hungary's pain
Comment: When I first read about teenage children disabling tanks and killing the occupants with rocks, clubs and bottles filled with gasoline, I thought the Marines could learn a lot from these children. Their communication, teamwork and overwhelming dedication amazed me.
I read about a 12-year-old boy who strapped a half-dozen grenades to his body, pulled a wire to pull all the pins and stepped in front of the tracks of a tank. After the tank ran him over and killed him, the grenades went off, derailing the tracks and disabling the tank, so that other children could throw gasoline bottles inside the turret to kill the drivers. I realized then this was not military mastery, but desperation spawned from people who had nothing left to live for.
"It should not have happened," said the minister who told the story of the 12-year-old boy. "Somebody should have stopped such a child. But he knew what he was fighting against."
"The Bridge at Andau," by James Albert Michener, is based on interviews with survivors of the 1956 Hungarian uprising against communist Soviet occupation. Written in 1957, the book was checked out of the Depot library five times during the late 50s and early 60s. From then on, it has silently gathered dust on the shelf. Within three years after the uprising, interest in the estimated 40,000 to 80,000 Hungarians slaughtered by the Soviets had vanished.
This book tells the story of the Soviet expansionist theory which was not taught in the Woodland High School. Instructors provided amazingly lukewarm descriptions of Soviet Communist Theory as a philosophy of taking care of the common people.
The "Bridge at Andau", in simple language and vivid imagery, describes the actions of brave and desperate people fighting to escape the domination of the "Red Bear." In the five days following the expulsion of the initial soviet troops, Hungarians prayed for American intervention which did not come. In the third and final phase of the fight for independence, the Soviets returned to Hungary in a fury of modern tanks and a mechanized army with hundreds of thousands of soldiers who had orders to shoot everyone and everything.
"When the victorious Soviets finally entered the castle itself, the final bastion, only thirty young Hungarians remained to walk out proudly under the white flag of surrender," according to the book. "For three days they (teenage children) had withstood the terrible concentration of Soviet power, and they had conducted themselves as veritable heroes. The gallant Soviet commander waited until they were well clear of the walls; then with one burst of machine-gun fire, he executed the lot."
This book not only tells the horrors of Soviet-occupied Hungary, but provides insight to all countries that struggled under Soviet reign. On its pages are the horrors of torturous militia which "encouraged" confessions from the most devout would-be communists. These crimes against humanity, similar in many instances to those suffered at the hands of Nazi's but less publicized. Due to lack of media interest, this uprising, although bloody and foul, never caught the concern of the world. The people in this tiny country never gained a champion for their cause. And, so lived in terror until the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1990.
Rating: 5
Summary: Communism with an inhuman face
Comment: I read this book years ago, yet its theme and message still abide with me. Michener personalizes the plight of a whole nation under the iron grip of an alien ideology as brutal and merciless as it is stupid. As someone who has travelled extensively in Hungary and other parts of Eastern Europe, I cannot but be saddened by the deliberate and systemic suppression and attempted annihilation during the last century of the rich variety of cultures that have grown and flourished in that part of the world.
Unfortunately, the 1956 Hungarian revolution took place only within the borders of modern Hungary, not within historic Hungary. Consequently, Michener's book does not address the hardships of ethnic Hungarians in bordering lands, such as Romania. Because the 1956 uprising happened on the borders of the Iron Curtain, however, it provided Michener a brief opening through which he could view the horrors of Marxist-Leninist "scientific socialism." The Bridge at Andau brings these horrors to life for those of us in the Free World.
"Nonfictional" accounts of historical events tend to describe them impersonally, largely as sequences of governmental actions. Michener's novel drives home the consequences of the Yalta conference for the ordinary people who later had to pay the price for those actions. I recommend this book highly to anyone who wants to understand the personal devastation wrought by utopian ideologies such as Marxism.
Rating: 5
Summary: A History Perspective for Non-History Buffs
Comment: Loved this short little paperback by a favorite author. Gives a short, but deep perspective on the Hungarian revolution against communist rule in 1956. These people had incredible persistence. For a person who would like to gain an understanding of historical events without delving into all the dry stuff, this little book helps considerably. Even though a complete time-line perspective of this region is lacking, enough is written to help one understand the events and why they took place. A must read for everyone. You can always read deeper in other books later if your curiosity is piqued by this book.
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Title: Bridges at Toko Ri by James A. Michener ISBN: 0449206513 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 1989 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Rascals in Paradise by JAMES A. MICHENER ISBN: 0449214591 Publisher: Fawcett Pub. Date: 12 October, 1987 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener ISBN: 0449206521 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1989 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Sayonara by James A. Michener ISBN: 0449204146 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 1990 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Return to Paradise by James A. Michener ISBN: 0449206505 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1993 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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