Rating: 
Summary: The forgotten conflict of the Cold War...
Review: This is one of the most tragic events of the twentieth century. It is a tale of the doomed revolt of the Hungarian people against the brutal Soviet military and government forces. Michener tells the story through the words of the men and women who lived through the bloody ordeal. The descriptions of the desperate street fighting between the Hungarians and the Soviet troops is both vivid and disturbing. Young boys would sacrifice their lives just to disable a Soviet tank, and often the boys were armed with nothing more than bricks. It's amazing that the uprising lasted as long as it did, considering how badly outnumbered and outgunned the Hungarian fighters were. Soviet retribution for the revolt was swift, deadly, and completely merciless. It's no surprise that so many thousands of Hungarians chose to flee their once beloved country rather than remain under the control of the Soviet Union. This book is incredibly fast-paced and gripping from beginning to end, and you will never forget this moving book. James Michener is one of the greatest writers and historians of all time and this is one of his very best.
Rating: 
Summary: True Adventures in Communism During McCarthy Era
Review: This true recounting of life under Communist rule in 1956 Hungary offers everything Solzenizen's Gulag Archipelago does, in about one-third the pages.
Like a well-written "who dunnit" mystery, Michener introduces characters that are all related to the central episode (a revolt against Soviet occupation) and ties them back to "the scene of the crime" in their own unique ways.
The radically different lives of each individual under Communist "freedom fighting" all arrive at the same intellectual conclusion after all: Communists suck.
The final two chapters are a hodge-podge of snapshots of refugees' stories and invective against American policies and is not as smooth as the rest of the book's intricate narratives. However,burried in it is the book's hidden treasure: a one-paragraph report of an New York Union Bigwig who was deported to Hungary as a Communist. In this single paragraph he is gratefully escaping with his life from his Worker's Paradise.Read The Bridge at Andau to know what is happening in North Korea as you read this.
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