As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Escape from a Siberian Labour Camp and His 3-Year Trek to Freedom

Book Description

Originally published in 1955, As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me has seen international success ever since. It has been translated into fifteen languages, sold more than 12 million copies, and is the basis for an award-winning German entry at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. Recounting an incredible real-life adventure, it tracks the destiny of German soldier Clemens Forrell who, in the aftermath of WWII, was sentenced to twenty-five years of forced labor in a lead mine in the barren eastern reaches of Siberia. Subjected to the brutality of the camp and the climate, Forrell dreamed continuously of escape—and then daringly effected it. From East Cape across the vast trackless wastes of Siberia, for thousands of miles and three years, with fear as his most intimate companion, Forrell fled treachery and endured some of the most inhospitable conditions on earth. In a long series of taped interviews with esteemed German author Josef M. Bauer, Forrell unfolded his remarkable story of survival. Bauer not only reconstructs Forrell’s arduous journey to the Iranian frontier and freedom; he also poignantly evokes the emotional content of Forrell’s brave quest—emerging as an affecting portrait of a man who strove and triumphed against all odds.

Customer Reviews:

Don't even think of buying this junk.......2007-09-22

I was very, very dissapointed with this book. After having read the amazing story of Theodor Kröger (a German who survived not only the Tsarist prisons but also the communist gulags) I wanted more of this and so I ordered this book. But what I got was a kind of telegram-style book with so much ommisions in the story, that you wonder why did somebody write it at all. If you can't get the story right, then don't tell it. Also, this is supposed to be a non-fiction story, but the dialogues between the lead character and his captors and/or fellow-prisoners are put on paper like they were held yesterday. If you're looking for a Papillon story, you better look somewhere else. I didn't even finish the book, it was a waste of my time.

a wild ride.......2007-07-26

I found this book to be inspiring and motivational. It is the amazing tale of a daring escape and a treacherous journey across the frozen Siberian north. They only thing that disappointed me was that the ending was anti-climactic in my opinion. Just a simply amazing book, there is a reason why it has been translated in to 15 languages and sold more then 12 millon copies.

Amazing .......2007-05-07

All the superlatives belong to this tale: remarkable, daring, unbelievable, amazing, incredible, beyond belief, extraordinary. That a person could 1. escape from a Soviet labor camp, 2. in the dead of winter, 3. from the farthest eastern point of Siberia, 4. after suffering from hunger and brutal treatment for three years, and still 5. make it home to Germany safely after another three years is a story for all lovers of survival dramas. The author expertly and faithfully chronicles Josef Bauer's account without glossing over the details of what it took to survive. I didn't come to like Mr. Bauer from this telling, however, I did feel a deep respect for his perseverance and stamina. Two other books of escape and survival that I recommend even more highly are: The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz and We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance by David Howarth.

As Far as my Feet will Carry me.......2007-01-29

Incredible story of survival and the will to live.

This book was excellent, I couldn't put it down........2006-04-28

As for the other half negative reviews, like it being for a young reader, don't pay any attention to that. Obviously those reviews are written by people that can't look or think beyond their own egos nor actually try to imagine what it must have been like, what the permanent affects were after such an altering event, and obvious emotional scars that must have continued on and on... After I finished the book, I re-read the preface and understood why there seemed to be pieces "I" wanted answers to, but understood why they weren't there.

I recommend this book to anyone of all ages. It's absolutely an amazing account of someone accomplishing a journey home with EVERYTHING against him and the beckoning door of death at every turn. How he survived? It's beyond me....

Now, I will hunt for the DVD....if anyone knows where I can find the DVD, please find a way of letting me know. Thanks!

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Depth of memory and connection
A beautiful reflection on what it meant to be Russian and French in the 20 th centruy
Lyrical memories of idyllic summers past
speak, memory
Beautiful

Dreams Of My Russian Summers: A Novel
Andrei Makine
Manufacturer: Touchstone
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0684852683

Amazon.com

Each summer, Andrei Makine's narrator and his sister leave the Soviet Union for the mythical land of France-Atlantis. That this country is a beautiful confabulation, a consolation existing only in his maternal grandmother's mind, makes it no less real. Though Charlotte Lemonnier lives in a town on the edge of the steppe, each night she journeys to a long-ago Paris, telling tales that the children then translate with their more Russian minds: "The president of the Republic was bound to have something Stalinesque about him in the portrait sketched by our imagination. Neuilly was peopled with kolkhozniks. And the slow emergence of Paris from the waters evoked a very Russian emotion--that of fleeting relief after one more historic cataclysm ..."

Makine's first novel is a singing tribute to the alchemy of inspiration, but it is no less familiar with the sorrows of reality. And it is only as he gets older that the narrator begins to piece together his grandmother's far more tragic past--her experiences in the Great War, the October Revolution, and after. Dreams of My Russian Summers is a love letter to an extraordinary woman (it's hard not to see the book as autobiographical) as well as to language and literature, which the boy turns to in avoidance of history's manipulations. It has all the marks of an instant classic.

Book Description

Hailed as extraordinary from coast to coast and winner of both the Prix Goncourt and the Prix Medicis, France's top literary prizes, the national bestseller Dreams of My Russian Summers traces a sentimental journey that embraces many of the dramatic events in Russia during the twentieth century. Here is a poignant story of a Soviet boy's ascent into manhood in the 1960s and 1970s, and his extraordinary affection for his mysterious grandmother who seems to have been there for all the pivotal historical events. This epic tale is full of tenderness and passion, pain and heartbreak; mesmerizing, in every way.

Customer Reviews:

Depth of memory and connection.......2007-04-01

This novel is unque in placing me into the transparent and transcental dimension of memory. It let me feel the power of reflectoin and voices from the distant past or other worlds. This novel doesn't have to be compared to Proust's masterpiece. The stream of narration and the language (I am reading an English translation) is almost mesmerizing, sending the reader off this world. I would place this as one of the best literary work.

A beautiful reflection on what it meant to be Russian and French in the 20 th centruy.......2006-05-28

Andrei Makine's book, Dreams of My Russian Summer's, is a very special book. Even though the author wrote the book in French, and I read it in translation (English), the writing is fantastic. It takes a little getting used to it, it's very "flowery", just to give you fair warning, but once you get used to it, you'll appreciate it. And despite all the attention given to the language, quite a bit actually happens, the dialogue doesn't stand still. It's a moving and interesting story.

The story is told in retrospect in the first person. It's a memory. We are told that he has a grandmother who has both French and Russian backgrounds, born and raised in France and married a Russian and lived out the rest of her life there, making her way through world wars and quirky Russian society. What we're not told immediately is why the narrator is fixated on his grandmother's dual nationality, which is what the novel is about.

Take time to enjoy the language and to fully appreciate the details of the story. I immediately reread the first 20 pages upon finishing, just to make sure I didn't miss anything important. This 1995 book will definitely be read and reread for a long time.

Lyrical memories of idyllic summers past.......2004-04-04

Andrei Makine, born in Siberia in 1957, has written an prose ode to his French grandmother, a memorable account of life in Communist Russia as lived by the woman who gave him joy, comfort, and permission to dream of other worlds.
Each summer, Andrei and his sister visited this grandmother at the edge of Russia's vast steppes, and in the evening she told them stories of her past. Trapped in Russia after the revolution, she married a Russian and became a hardworking Soviet wife and mother - but she never lost the Frenchness of her utmost being. Slowly, over the years, she reveals harsh truths to young Andrei - but always with a lyrical and dreamlike quality that makes reading this book feel as though you're inhaling pure, gauzy poetry.

speak, memory.......2003-12-22

A lovely, lyrical "autobiographical novel". Makine, born Russian, has lived in France since 1987. This novel covers his extraordinary relationship with his grandmother, who sets his life in motion by re-telling stories of her French past. This is a wonderful book, filled with spare, powerful writing. One of the loveliest books I've read in a long time.

Beautiful.......2003-08-21

A work of art, Makine's use of language is stunning. Not a quick read, I frequently had to stop and ponder many profound passages. Literature as an art form is not dead.

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The Gift of Love and Continuity
Dull
It Rings a Bell
Affectionate and funny
Another Good One from Trillin

Messages From My Father
Calvin Trillin
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0374525080

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"The man was stubborn," writes Calvin Trillin -- the second most stubborn member of the Trillin family -- to begin this memoir of his father. Although he had a strong vision of the sort of person he wanted his son to be, Abe Trillin's explicit advice about how to behave didn't go beyond "You might as well be a mensch." Somehow, though, his messages got through clearly, and Calvin's work is a credit to his father's vision.

Book Description

Calvin Trillin, the celebrated New Yorker writer, offers a rich and engaging biography of his father, as well as a literate and entertaining fanfare for the common (and decent, and hard-working) man.

Abe Trillin had the western Missouri accent of someone who had grown up in St. Joseph and the dreams of America of someone who had been born is Russia. In Kansas City, he was a grocer, at least until he swore off the grocery business. He was given to swearing off things—coffee, tobacco, alcohol, all neckties that were not yellow in color. Presumably he had also sworn off swearing, although he was a collector of curses, such as "May you have an injury that is not covered by workman's compensation." Although he had a strong vision of the sort of person he wanted his son to be, his explicit advice about how to behave didn't go beyond an almost lackadaisical "You might as well be a mensch." Somehow, though, Abe Trillin's messages got through clearly.

The author's unerring sense of the American character is everywhere apparent in this quietly powerful memoir.

Customer Reviews:

The Gift of Love and Continuity.......2007-01-13

Such is Calvin Trillin's caliber of work you don't realize how good he is, and he is really good. This book touched me deeply; Mr. Trillinsky was not an emotional man and given to the touchy feely sort of stuff so espoused these days, but he gave his son everything he would need to have a fulfilling life, one of the main components being a deep, abiding and unconditional love; how lucky Mr. Trillin was.

My father was an evil and stupid man who never learned from his mistakes and is now reaping the whirlwind; I believe Mr. Trillinsky would have I.D.'d him in five minutes flat, and would have had mercy on him, much more than I can manage now. If you are raising a child, or trying to figure out what in God's green earth happened to you during your childhood, read this book. Mr. Trillin's artistry is a delicious extra.

I have read "Remembering Denny" and it has seared a place in my mind since. It explained so much to me. This is another book that is going to go on my mental bookshelf, probably till the end of me.

Dull.......2006-10-19

This book was a disappointment to me. Although it is only a slight volume I found it to be heavy going and very uninteresting. Avoid.

It Rings a Bell.......2005-08-31

I don't know anyone in the Trillin family personnally, but I recognize them very well. I learned something I didn't know--that Jews landed some place other than Ellis Island. As a father myself, I appreciate what Abe did for his son. So did Calvin.

Affectionate and funny.......2004-07-13

Humorist, journalist, food maven, the author of numerous books and a writer for The New Yorker, Trillin brings his blend of self-deprecating humor and thoughtful observation to this affectionate memoir of his father.

Abram Trilinsky emigrated to St. Joseph, Missouri, from Russia at the age of two. When his wife hinted at a trip to Europe, his terse response was, "I've been." He was resolutely a mid-western American, a man who changed his name to Abe Trillin, and at the end of his life exhibitted the only prejudice his son ever observed - an impatience with "refugees," by which he meant people who clung to the language and customs of their country of origin.

He was a stubborn man, like most of his family, described by his wife as "Mules!" "I sometimes imagined my father as swearing off things just to keep in practice," his son observes.

He never swore although he collected colorful curses - "May you have an injury that's not covered by workman's compensation." His honesty was absolute - when a child turned 12 he paid full price at the movies even if he looked 9.

He was unassuming. When Calvin was in high school, his father opened a restaurant and took to wearing yellow ties. "He said something about how most people don't stand out from the crowd, and how it helped to have a sort of signature." This seemed embarrasing to his adolescent son. "What was so great about having someone say, 'Oh, yes, Abe Trillin - the guy with the yellow ties'?" But years later at Abe's funeral, he's touched by how many friends asked for a yellow tie as a remembrance.

His father was not a talker. One of his favorite jokes concerned a Jewish actor who finally gets a real part playing a Jewish father. The actor asks his father why he seems disappointed. " 'Of course I'm proud of you son,' " the father says, " 'But we were hoping you'd get a speaking part.' "

Calvin writes, "What strikes me as odd now is how much my father managed to get across without those heart-to-hearts that I've read about fathers and sons having." Without it being talked about, Calvin knew his father was ambitious for him. "It was a given in our family that my father was a grocer so that I wouldn't have to be."

One of their biggest arguments concerned Calvin's joining the Boy Scouts. He hated Boy Scouts but Abe regarded it as essential to American boyhood, a necessary step on the way to Yale, Trillin senior's university of choice, an idea he'd gotten from a novel read as a boy - Stover At Yale.

Calvin went to Yale. Yale launched him out of Kansas City, never to return (also as Abe expected). The grocer's son would never be a grocer.

In one (somewhat unrealistically) ingenuous chapter Trillin goes to a dinner of prominent writers and realizes that they all went to Ivy League schools as he did. Was there a connection? (Puleeeeze). "For the first time, I realized that my father's vision of how all of this was supposed to work out might not have been as simplistic as I had always assumed."

This slim volume is deeply captivating and affecting. His father emerges as a man of indomitable will, will so strong he imposed it simply by being. He was a man who could afford to be easy going and funny, all the while adhering to a plan of grand ambition which embraced cross country automobile trips to broaden the horizons of his children and simple pronouncements: "You might as well be a mensch." Much of the book's power lies in the author's recognition of himself as his father's ambition fulfilled - a successful American who does his best to "be a mensch," a real human being.

Another Good One from Trillin.......2001-07-06

The market is flooded these days with memoirs. This little book stands out from the pack. Trillin writes about his father with love, admiration and respect, as well as his famous wit. I recommend this book to any father's son.

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Herzen in Brief
Some Observations
Herzen is the Culmination of Russian Romantic Thought
Another great writer than Americans never get exposed to....
It's lucid and evokes an era

My Past and Thoughts
Alexander Herzen
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520042107

Book Description

Alexander Herzen's own brilliance and the extraordinary circumstances of his life combine to place his memoirs among the greatest works of the modern era. Born in 1812, the illegitimate son of a wealthy Russian landowner, he became one of the most important revolutionary and intellectual figures of his time: as theorist, polemicist, propagandist, and political actor. Fifty years after his death, Lenin revered him as the father of Russian revolutionary socialism. Tolstoy said he had never met another man "with so rare a combination of scintillating brilliance and depth." His monumental autobiography is an unparalleled record of his--and his century's--remarkable life.
Herzen's story of his privileged childhood among the Russian aristocracy is lit with the insight of a great novelist. With a trained historian's sense of the interaction of people and events, he limns the grand line of revolutionary development from the earliest stirrings of Russian radicalism throughthe tumultuous ideological debates of the international. His close friends and enemies--Marx, Wagner, Mill, Bakunin, Garibaldi, Kropotkin--are brought brilliantly alive. Dwight Macdonald's knowledgeable and fluent abridgment makes this great work readily available to the modern reader.

Customer Reviews:

Herzen in Brief.......2007-10-10

There is no question that it is good to have this edition of Alexander Herzen's autobiography, "My Past and Thoughts," though it is considerably abridged. The work is deservedly praised as one of the great autobiographies of the West. Well written and colorful, it acquaints us with the mind and spirit of one of the most important political figures of the nineteenth century. Herzen, darling of radicals and nemesis of conservatives (wrongly, I believe), is a seminal thinker and activist of his time.
Herzen, a Russian by birth but an internationalist in spirit, knew most of the radicals of the era, Bakunin, Mazzini, Garibaldi, Louis Blanc. Yet he was in a way not one of them. He was too hardheaded and too reasonable--he knew what worked and what didn't. Raised in autocratic Russia, he had experienced prison, exile--and fame as a writer.
This edition has been abridged by Dwight MacDonald, unfortunately leaving out some crucial parts, for example his relations with his wife, Natalie, and other more domestic issues. However, the original appeared in five volumes, and something had to be excised to make this edition manageable. Those who wish to read the complete autobiography should look up the Knopf four-volume edition of 1968. Nonetheless, this edition will do for most of us. It's a gem.

Philip Brantingham
Chicago, IL

Some Observations.......2007-01-28

One finds oneself drawn to Herzen. He comes off as urbane, generous, strong, empathetic to those suffering under the Tsar (and all tyrannies), dedicated to the cause of bringing freedom to his homeland and a wonderful writer. He seems to have known, or at least bumped into, all the luminaries of the Russia and the Europe of his time.

This abridgement by Dwight McDonald, dating I believe from 1968, is of its time. The editor tells us that he excised those portions of the narrative dealing with Herzen's marriage, his wife's affair with a close friend of Herzen's, the loss of his mother and son in the sinking of a passenger boat and the death of his wife shortly thereafter. I wish that material had been included. I suppose an abridgement done in 2007 might include only those portions and nothing else, as we have less high seriousness and more interest in scandal and tragedy. In any case, I would have loved to read Herzen on these more personal topics.

I should add that it may be my spotty background in 19th Century European history but I was lost any number of times as I read. Herzen is telling us about contemporary men, events, controversies and schools of thought. There are numerous footnotes identifying the people he refers to but I needed more--no doubt the references would have been understood by any educated reader at the time but that was then.

That said, I'm glad I made the effort and I wish I could have met him.

Herzen is the Culmination of Russian Romantic Thought.......2002-02-02

In the years before Lenin and the harsh, bleak application of socialist thought to autocracy there existed a group of philosophers who believed in the beauty of the commune and its cooperation with a Republican government. Britain had Robert Owen and his factory town, the French had Fourier (the phalanstery) and Proudhon among others, and the Russians had Herzen. Here existed a time where the leading academics saw folly in violent revolution, and Herzen was by no means a demogogue willing to mobilize the Russian peasants in a siege of Moscow like a simple Pugachev or a Decembrist.

This perhaps explains Herzen's stern dislike of Marx and Engels, for he saw too much of the Robespierre in them and their ideas.

Herzen believed in democracy almost in a modern American sense. Indeed, much of the work is laced with arguments in disfavor to the flowering of socialism in Europe, citing particularly the cruelty of the police in France during 1848: "The Latin world does not like freedom, it only likes to sue for it." Certainly the tendencies of the Germans were no more progressive either. Instead at one point in the text the author suggests that those who "can put off from himself the old Adam of Europe and be born again a new Jonathan had better take the first steamer to some place in Wisconsin or Kansas."

The selections and abridgement of the text emphasize Herzen's basic belief about reform: revolution is gradual. One has to breed engrained stupidity out of the ruling class and make laws that better everyone, like the English and Americans. Laws make a better society, not people: "The Englishman's liberty is more in his institutions than in himself or his conscience. His freedom is the 'common law.'"

The text covers the demise of Herzen, culminating in his rejection on his deathbed by the new revolutionary ("terrorist") camps in Russia, headed ideologically by Chernyshevsky and best seen in the widespread incendiary and murderous practices of Sergei Nechaev. These are all topics of the years after Herzen's death, the tragic history of the latter half of the nineteenth century and the prelude to the pall of 1917.

Another great writer than Americans never get exposed to...........2000-10-19

Herzen is one of the many authors whom Americans never are exposed to and rightfully should be. He was a great thinker; he writes lucidly (although tending toward personal speculation.... you've got to remember-- he was living at a similar time to Tolstoy who does the same thing....) and CAN BE surprisingly contemporary for someone so long dead....

It's understandable why Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Solzenitzen (sp?) are much more widely read than he is: they are better novellists and never got cursed by the fact that they were socialists (such a dirty word in the US!) BUT, Herzen is definately someone whom anyone trying to pawn themselves off as a psuedo-intellectual should read.

One problem with this book: some of his best stuff is obviously just not in here (as it is his memoirs....) His philosophy is brilliant; some of his letters to his son are as moving as any I can think of (excepting perhaps Rilke's to the young poet...)

His memoirs are a definate must-read.... for whomever is reading this review.... Just buy the book!

It's lucid and evokes an era.......2000-03-23

A worthwile read for anyone with an interest in 19th century history - or Russian thought. Herzen's narrative begins with Napoleon's retreat from Moscow and winds on through Nichlos II's reign to the larger events of Napoleon the III's Europe. At times a witty and fascinating account of both Russia and Europe during a crucial era, Herzen occasionally drifts off into somewhat tedious personal speculation.

Revolution on My Mind: Writing a Diary Under Stalin

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Revolution on My Mind: Writing a Diary Under Stalin
Jochen Hellbeck
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0674021746

Book Description

Revolution on My Mind is a stunning revelation of the inner world of Stalin's Russia. We see into the minds and hearts of Soviet citizens who recorded their lives during an extraordinary period of revolutionary fervor and state terror. Writing a diary, like other creative expression, seems nearly impossible amid the fear and distrust of totalitarian rule; but as Jochen Hellbeck shows, diary-keeping was widespread, as individuals struggled to adjust to Stalin's regime.

Rather than protect themselves against totalitarianism, many men and women bent their will to its demands, by striving to merge their individual identities with the collective and by battling vestiges of the old self within. We see how Stalin's subjects, from artists to intellectuals and from students to housewives, absorbed directives while endeavoring to fulfill the mandate of the Soviet revolution--re-creation of the self as a builder of the socialist society. Thanks to a newly discovered trove of diaries, we are brought face to face with individual life stories--gripping and unforgettably poignant.

The diarists' efforts defy our liberal imaginations and our ideals of autonomy and private fulfillment. These Soviet citizens dreamed differently. They coveted a morally and aesthetically superior form of life, and were eager to inscribe themselves into the unfolding revolution. Revolution on My Mind is a brilliant exploration of the forging of the revolutionary self, a study without precedent that speaks to the evolution of the individual in mass movements of our own time.

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Before My Time
Niccolo Tucci
Manufacturer: Moyer Bell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

A rich and complex saga of a wealthy Russian family at the turn of the century.

With an introduction by Doris Lessing.

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My Half-Century: Selected Prose
Anna Akhmatova
Manufacturer: Northwestern University Press
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Book Description

all the major prose works

My Discovery of America (Hesperus Modern Voices)

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Too bad he was a Commie

My Discovery of America (Hesperus Modern Voices)
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Manufacturer: Hesperus Press
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ASIN: 1843914085

Book Description

In My Discovery of America, now in its first English translation, the leading poet of Revolutionary Russia offers a fascinating account of his travels in the U.S. Touring America, by way of an enforced sojourn in Mexico, Russian poet and indefatigable traveler Vladimir Mayakovsky was able to observe firsthand what he considered to be the model for Soviet development. Although ideologically at odds with much of American culture, and taking every opportunity to propound his own political beliefs en route, he delighted in the creativity and advancement he saw, believing it to be the future for mankind. His impressions, presented here in full for the first time in English, form an inspired collection of sketches, thoughts, jottings, and poems. Vladimir Mayakovsky was the foremost poet of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and one of the founders of Russia’s Futurism movement.

Customer Reviews:

Too bad he was a Commie.......2007-07-09

Anything Mayakovsky had written, drawn, or scripted is in my book fantastic. I even got the last poem he had ever written tattooed down my arm.

Brilliant read

Of Love and Russia: The Eleven-Year Fight for My Husband and Freedom

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Of Love and Russia: The Eleven-Year Fight for My Husband and Freedom
Irina McClellan
Manufacturer: W W Norton & Co Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0393026809

My Childhood (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)

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A barbarous life where suffering is a diversion
The School of Hard Knocks
Brutal realism...highly entertaining and a good read
Magnificent Memoir
Teachers, put Gorky on your reading lists

My Childhood (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
Maxim Gorky
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140182853

Book Description

1926. Maxim Gorky, pseudonym of Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov, Soviet novelist, playwright and essayist, who was a founder of social realism. Although known principally as a writer, he was closely associated with the tumultuous revolutionary period of his own country. My Childhood, the first volume of Gorky's autobiographical trilogy, was in part an act of exorcism. It describes a life begun in the raw, remembered with extraordinary charm and poignancy and without bitterness. Of all Gorky's books this is the one that made him the father of Russian literature. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

Customer Reviews:

A barbarous life where suffering is a diversion.......2006-11-15

Gorky's childhood memories brush a very outspoken picture of `that close-knit, suffocating little world of pain and suffering, where the Russian man of the street used to live.'
It is a world full of brutal violence: husbands beating savagely their wives, severely and intensively flogging of children, gamblers becoming totally destitute, alcoholism, dangerous diseases (smallpox, ulcers) and cruel street games (cock and dog fighting, cat torturing, making fun of drunken beggars). Socially, there is a big chasm between the haves and have-nots: their children cannot play together. The poor cannot feed all their new born babies and expose them.
On the other hand, this bunch of `wild animals' is deeply, but primitively religious. They ask God constantly to forgive their sins.

Despite this barbarous environment, Gorky considers his childhood as `a beehive to which various single obscure people brought the honey of their knowledge and thoughts on life; often their honey was dirty and bitter, but every scrap of knowledge was honey all the same.'
There is also another reason why he put these painful memories on paper: `It is the truth and the truth must be known. The Russian man in the street is sufficiently healthy and young in spirit to overcome the horrors.'

Although he lost his love for his family and was thrown out of their home, he remains highly optimistic for mankind: `Life is always surprising us by the bright, healthy and creative human powers of goodness. It is those powers that awaken our indestructible hope that a better and more human life will once again be reborn.'

Gorky was received with open arms by the communists, but that love story ended in total personal disaster.

This brutal picture of the man in the street should remind us from where we all come from.
Not to be missed.

The School of Hard Knocks.......2006-03-28

"Childhood" starts out like many Russian novels; we visit the funeral of a young man. In the midst of all the grief, the young widow suffers a miscarriage and the young orphan is sent to the rather disfunctional home of his grandparents. There the temperment of the patriarch is measured by the severity of the beatings he administers. In the midst of all of this, a young boy grows into adolescence.

Maxim Gorky earns our respect as a writer (and as a survivor). It is hard to fathom such a life but Gorky has used the genre of autobiography to paint as visual a portrait as any novel could create. There may not be action taking place on every page but there are always recollections by a man rediscovering who he is by recreating the influential events of his early life. In sharing this insight, Gorky gives us portraits of many interesting individuals. I hedged away from rating "Childhood" with 5 stars because I didn't mind setting it aside from time to time. It is very good but it is not compelling.

Brutal realism...highly entertaining and a good read.......2004-03-29

This is the 1st past of the trilogy of Maxim Gorky's autobiography. This is a really good and entertaining book, but contains at times morbid and depressing subject material, especially the unbelievable cruelty of some of the characters. There are some light moments though and if you enjoy realism and a brutal peek at what life was like in early 20th century Russian life for poor folks and enjoy Dostoevsky, you will like this book.

I personally think that Gorky belongs at the top of elite Russian writers.

Magnificent Memoir.......2003-12-04

The finest memoir of chilhood that I have ever read. I never felt like I was reading a translation. Gorky captures the wonder of a remarkable and sensitive soul.

Teachers, put Gorky on your reading lists.......2003-08-28

I first read this book as a college freshman and think it must be read by all young adults. Gorky is, after all, the "father of Russian literature" -- yet most people have never heard of this writer par excellence. His storytelling is smooth, intense, and warms the heart like a swig of vodka on a nippy night in Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky's birthplace). Wilk's translation is clear and quite excellent. Gorky's vivid memories of childhood will inspire one to recollect their own experiences growing up.

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