Rating: 
Summary: A "Must Read" for Visitors to Budapest
Review: I had just returned from Budapest, a beautiful city still digging out from 45 years of Communist mis-rule. The tour guide, a lovely lady in her mid-50's with a lilting accent, spoke of the Russians with disdain. She positively spat out the word "Russian." As one who had majored in political science during the 1970's and who was familiar with the 1956 revolution I had a visceral understanding of what fueled her venom.
When I returned to the United States I bought this book, which was written in 1957 based on hundreds of interviews with Hungarian refugees. It eloquently explained the horror and moral bankruptcy of Communism in the context of the revolution. Through this book I understood exactly what the tour guide was saying and why she was saying it. I think this book is as relevant today as it was then.
If you ever have a chance to visit this beautiful city, do it. You will not be disappointed. And read this book first. You will not be disappointed by that, either.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent story about overshadowed history
Review: I read Bridge at Andau while in Budapest this spring. It was amazing to be in the places where this terrible history took place while reading Michener's account of the events. Two points were apparent to me; 1. I was surprised to realize that this history is overshadowed by other events in eastern Europe, 2. The book was written at the height of McCarthyism and must be taken with a small grain of salt. The stories told about the revolution of 1956 are no less legitimate or compelling than at the time the book was penned, but the purpose of the book was different. Michener wrote a novel that was to serve as a warning to anyone who might have romantic ideals about the evil communists that were percieved to be ready to destroy America. This is a great story about about courageous people. Unfortunately it may be misinterperted as soft sell propoganda about why capitalism is better than communism.
Rating:
Summary: Communism with an inhuman face
Review: 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:
Summary: A History Perspective for Non-History Buffs
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A History Perspective for Non-History Buffs
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Glimpse Behind the Iron Curtain
Review: Michener is one of the great historians of the 20th century. Not only is his research vast and impeccable, but Michener is able to translate his research into a wonderfully readable book. The Bridge at Andau is no exception. In the mid-1950's Michener was living in Austria, along the border with Hungary. From this unique vantage point, he was able to observe the large exodus of Hungarians fleeing their communist nation. His observations and discussions with these refugees brought many aspects of the communist regime to light. He was able to bring the reader into a communist state and to reveal its inner workings, including how the government controlled the masses. At the time, this was no easy task, as the Iron Curtain was nearly impenetrable to Westerners. Nevertheless, Michener was able to piece together countless interviews with these refugees and create an accurate picture of life under the red flag. He discussed nearly every facet of the politics of the Hungarian people. He told of intellectuals beginning their theoretical revolution, and he told of the students who were the first to pick up arms against the police forces and Soviet army. Michener also spoke of the workers, the bones of communism, and how they turned their back on the system and tried to destroy it. Unfortunately, the revolution failed and the Hungarians were forced to flee or face dire repercussions. And Michener was there to chronicle their tales. The Bridge at Andau is a fascinating book and a document of Cold War history. It is definitely worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Glimpse Behind the Iron Curtain
Review: Michener is one of the great historians of the 20th century. Not only is his research vast and impeccable, but Michener is able to translate his research into a wonderfully readable book. The Bridge at Andau is no exception. In the mid-1950's Michener was living in Austria, along the border with Hungary. From this unique vantage point, he was able to observe the large exodus of Hungarians fleeing their communist nation. His observations and discussions with these refugees brought many aspects of the communist regime to light. He was able to bring the reader into a communist state and to reveal its inner workings, including how the government controlled the masses. At the time, this was no easy task, as the Iron Curtain was nearly impenetrable to Westerners. Nevertheless, Michener was able to piece together countless interviews with these refugees and create an accurate picture of life under the red flag. He discussed nearly every facet of the politics of the Hungarian people. He told of intellectuals beginning their theoretical revolution, and he told of the students who were the first to pick up arms against the police forces and Soviet army. Michener also spoke of the workers, the bones of communism, and how they turned their back on the system and tried to destroy it. Unfortunately, the revolution failed and the Hungarians were forced to flee or face dire repercussions. And Michener was there to chronicle their tales. The Bridge at Andau is a fascinating book and a document of Cold War history. It is definitely worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Eyewitnesses of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising
Review: On October 23, 1956, student protesters in the Hungarian capital city of Budapest uttered grievances against the Soviet puppet government in place at the time. It turned into a riot, and when secret police began shooting the protesters, the riot became an insurrection that eventually drove out Soviet forces from Hungary. Early on the morning of November 4, the Russians returned and crushed the insurrection mercilessly, restoring communist rule. Some 200,000 Hungarian refugees fled the country, most of who went to neighboring Austria, across a bridge near the community of Andau. It was here that James Albert Michener interviewed several hundred of these refugees, who reflected their experiences in the uprising as well as the life they had endured in Hungary up to then. This comprises his book under review. It was first published in 1957. Students of the Hungarian Uprising (sometimes called the `Hungarian Revolution') will likely find Michener's work of some value, especially if one wishes to see the uprising through the eyes of its participants. Michener recounts the experiences of families and individual "freedom fighters" seeking a better life and alternative to Soviet domination and repression. A particularly valuable and interesting section is Chapter 6, in which Michener writes about a typical AVO man, a member of the secret police (Hungarian: Allam Vedelmi Osztag, more correctly known as the AVH, or Allam Vedelmi Hatosag). It was these individuals, often from insecure and unhappy lives that formed the backbone of Communist rule inside Hungary, promoting terror, and fears of torture and execution into the Hungarian populace. Michener places a tremendous emphasis in his book on the heroism demonstrated by the patriots of Hungary that rebelled against the Soviets, fighting off tanks with Molotov cocktails, aging rifles, or their bare hands. Particularly alarming are his accounts of Communist Party members and working-class people, who were supposed to be the founders of communism, who raised arms and vengefully attacked and drove out the Soviets from their nation! There are, however, problems with Michener's work; they are not a criticism of Michener's own integrity. First, the fact that his book appeared in 1957, a very short time following the uprising and in the midst of the Cold War, a bias is evident in his words; his work could very easily have been written to promote further dissent against international communism, as it undoubtedly did. Michener was a very popular sensationalist in his day. Then again, the Russians and Khrushchev have only themselves to blame for the condemnation they received, as it was the Russians who returned to Budapest and mercilessly shot people not even associated with the popular uprising. Second, his book pays little, if any, attention to the crucial politics behind the uprising. As his book was written too soon following the event, this is to be expected. It is only following many years and indeed, the eventual collapse of communism in Europe that the full story could be told and revealed. Third, a number of crucial events following 1945 took place in Hungary that eventually exploded into the popular uprising of October-November 1956. Michener does not detail these crucial events; hence his book provides inadequate and only sporadic background information of the uprising. For instance, he does not take care to detail how the Communist Party remained highly unpopular throughout Hungary following the Second World War, yet were imposed on the people through vote rigging and Russian backing, as well as through the AVO and terror. His work only provides details of the moral and social effects of the uprising on Hungarians. The book is an interesting and sometimes exciting read, though it is far from a complete look at this event, which was so soon forgotten outside Hungary.
Rating:
Summary: The truth is uncovered
Review: The writer is determined in this book to show the brutality of communism as covered by the Soviet propaganda in the middle of the 20th century. The book's composite characters demonstrate the reality behind the iron curtain. If anyone is wondering what life was like in Soviet controlled countries, read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Should be required reading for everyone
Review: This is a crushing condemnation of communism and it hits you with a hard, visceral documentary style. This isn't a long winded Michener epic; it's a short book, hard to put down, and it has the tight control of a skilled newspaper journalist but with a very human touch. You'll be stunned by man's potential for inhumanity, but I think you'll also be duly amazed by the courage and resiliance of the Hungarians. Consider reading Tibor Fischer's book "Under the Frog" alongside this one; it's a great complement as Fischer gets you inside the surreal absurdities of the communist system with a black humour that is poles apart from Michener's doggedly objective approach -- but without reading the Michener you could miss the point about how horrible things really were.
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