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Summary: Sobering,I will never again feel sorry for myself !
Review: I first read this book in 1977.I was a junior in high school,the same age as the author when he began his heroic adventure.It is impossible to even put yourself in his position.The best book I have ever read.
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Summary: Best WW2 book on the market!!
Review: This book is truely incredible. I had an uncle who fought on the eastern front during the war. I could not help but think of him while reading Guy Sajer's book. The brutality and horror that Sajer faced and survived is the greatest statement against war that can be made.
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Summary: Remarque and Hemingway don't come even close
Review: This profound record of the triumph of the human spirit can be placed among the greater achievements of the western civilization. And you thought "only the victors have stories to tell".
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Summary: An amazing thoought provoking and reality emphasisng novel
Review: Guy Sajer made me think and feel more than I ever have in any other non fiction book. His unglorified and every day secription was so riveting that i feel inspired to contact him or at least understand what he is doing now. I have never felt like this for any other author. His words were so well written and his insights so chillingly poignant and 20 year oldish that I was captivated for hours upon a time. What he went through make any hardship today pathetic and incomparable. The fact that he survived the ordeal shows that some people are incredibly strong on the inside and hope is always there. This should be read in all schools.Warwick Kelly University of Waikato
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Summary: No author has ever described the horrors of warfare as Sajer
Review: I as a German born was deeply moved by the suffering of the the average German infantryman(Landser) in World War II. Sajer describes in detail the comradeship and bonding of the supply units he started out in, and then in the fighting units at the end of the war. How the German could ever survive to fight the Russian with the cold, lack of food and clothes, shortages of weapons and ammunition and the total indifference from the German High Command and political leadership is beyond me. The eastern lands, partisans, and the Russian soldiers were so hard and totally indifferent to the suffering and losses imposed on them by the Germans. However, after reading this book several times and with the knowledge I have on the German Wehrmacht, and my own family history in World War II, I firmly feel that the Germans could have beaten the Russians if they had not succumbed to this same feeling. Germans are city dwellers and do not adapt to the artic or steppe cold that well and this comes across as another theme in Sajer's book. If the German leadership had paid more attention to the supply and general welfare of its soldiers, the outcome would probably have been different. This attitude contributed mightly to the large losses experienced by the Wehrmacht and limited its operational effectiveness on all fronts. This clearly comes across in Sajer's narrative. And yet despite all of the problems encountered by Sajer and his cohorts, on a tactical level they did extremly well in both survival and fighting the Russians. After reading this book, I realized even further why Germany lossed on the Eastern front, especially strategically, since they won so many tactical engagements. This book is a masterpeice on the average German fighting man who was neither SS or a Nazi, but fought out of duty, loyalty to family or fear of punishment. Sajer points out the fear factor of the enlisted men from the noncoms and officers, and how this motivated them, but probably also limted individual decision making. They de! serve our respect as soldiers for a flawed cause. Sajer's book further points to one of the key successes of the German infantryman on the Eastern front: unit cohesion that allowed the soldiers to survive and hopefully live another hour, day, week or month by supporting each other. It is a good thing than American mititary leadership pays such close attention to supplies, medical needs, and logistics, because that is what wins wars.
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Summary: Fact or fiction, a tour de force
Review: Fact or fiction, this book is a literary masterpiece. If it isindeed a work of the imagination, it's all the more impressive; whatwe'd have here would be a latter-day Dostoyevsky. But the evidence suggests Guy Sajer's book is factual. Too bad these ratings go only to 10. Otherwise I'd give this book a 20 or more.
Rating:
Summary: Intensely moving book
Review: Having just read the book, I have to add my few lines to the paeans of praise that it has garnered so deseverdly. The book is not just about war, but the intense comradeship that only arises from the extreme privations of war. It is this theme that is so consistently expressed with a lyrical and understated beauty that makes it a great work of art, and unique.
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Summary: Simply the best book ever written
Review: Guy Sajer's Forgotten Soldier is far and away the best book I have ever read. His account of his experiences are eloquent and touching. Never has an author managed to convey the feelings and emotions of war as how Sajer has done. I could not let go of this book and read it in the space of a day and a night....absolutley riveted to it. Sajer left me so transfixed that once I finished the book, I went-on line to find out more info about him and his book (at 4 in the morning). I only wish he would have written a longer epilogue so I could have found out more about his surviving comrades. If ever you should go out of your way to buy a book, it should be for this one. I know that for as long as I live I will never forget it.
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Summary: The plain truth
Review: Reading this book brought back memories which I heard from my uncle, who was on the eastern front as a foot soldier from the first to the last day. The character in this book coming closest to my uncle is the veteran, with one difference - my uncle survived. All the writing about the bitter cold, the lack of food, the battle cry of the charging Russian steam roller, the partisans - every page reminded me of the accounts my uncle has handed down to me - piece by piece.
Whoever says, this book is fictional, does a great deal of injustice to the millions of soldiers (not only Germans) who did not survive the war on the eastern front.
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Summary: Reality of war in all its unglorius suffering and horror
Review: I read this book when I was a teenager and have kept a copy ever since. This book should be read by all generations of all nationalities so that war is understood to be what it is, the most wasteful and terrible thing that mankind is capable of. Even in Japan, a vanquished nation in WW2, a book such as this is not to be found (except for survivors tales of Hiroshima and Nagasaki holocausts). As for accusations about the authenticity of this book, I believe that no phony can go into the level of detail and description of sheer human misery that Mr.Sajer does without having experienced it firsthand.
This remains to date the most memorable and influential book I have ever read.
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