Rating: 
Summary: WAR
Review: War... Sometimes it feels as we know everything of the war already, but yet it is still a long way to go. Uprising in the Warsaw Jewish Getto. Who could believe that Jews could resist? And they did. They knew that they could not win but they prefered to die taking a few of the enemies with them. It reminded me the Jewish history of Masada. These people died but they won anyway.
Rating:
Summary: I love this author!
Review: After I read Exodus I was unsure if I wanted to read Mila 18. Many times i have read a book that I found to be wonderful and then on the next book of that same author's I have been disappointed.
This was so definitely not the case with Mila 18. I sincerely doubt that I will ever read another book as affecting as Exodus. But I was very impressed on Leon Uris' honesty and compassion and love for his characters. I think that Mordechai Aneilewicz would be proud.
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Summary: An indictment of the world , then and today....
Review: Mila 18 is a breathtaking account of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, by the Jewish population of Warsaw, against the plans of the Nazi regime to exterminate them.
It is a great epic from the pen of one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century, Leon Uris.
The Warsaw ghetto uprisings are an important symbol of the freedom and dignity of mankind and the ongoing struggle against totalitarianism and cruelty (particular that type of cruelty that is self righteously practiced by ideologues from the left and right.).
The key characters are:
Andrei Androfski , the indomitable hero of a prestigious Polish cavalry regiment , and also a proud Jew.Gabriella Rak , Andrei's pretty Polish sweetheart , one of the rare voices of conscience in a world gone mad . Deborah Bronski , the intriguing beauty , a figure of love and tragedy , Andrei's sister. Paul Bronski , a shell of his man who ,lacks all conviction , driven by the willingness to please his masters and a strong desire to divorce himself from his roots. Christopher De Monti , The Italian journalist and playboy who will come out of this as the voice that will bring a disturbing hidden truth to the world. Rachael Bronski : Deborah's lovely and talented daughter , whose life is thrown into turmoil by the Nazi occupation , she is a rare survivor. Alexander Brandel : a narrator and leader of the Bathyran Zionist Movement in Warsaw Wolf Brandel : Rachael ' sweetheart and a natural leader ,together with Rachael and her younger brother Stephan ., one of the young people of the ghetto determined to survive . This book can be appreciated on many levels. It is a novel of love and hate , of destruction and redemption , of much that is tragic and horrific as well triumph of the human spirit . It is an intense human drama. But most of all it contains an important lesson for the past and present , a lesson more important today than ever. Fundamentally this is a story of the Jewish people, and about the hatred the Jewish people have survived at a time when the dark and hideous forces of anti-Semitism are reemerging on a scale unknown since Hitler's Third Reich, under the guise of anti-Zionism or hatred of Israel. This is a story about how the Jewish people where persecuted and massacred at will in every land in which they where strangers, because they did where deprived of a homeland of their own . Always at the darkest hours of the holocaust the one redeeming factor is the desire for the rebirth of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.
Indeed the movement that keeps the Jewish people alive is Zionism!
The same dream that many evil forces today are working to destroy. When the Jewish children are being taken to their deaths in the Nazi vehicles, what keeps them alive a little longer is the dream living in the tiny land of Israel, then known by the colonial name of Palestine. It is this dream that provides the only hope at all when we read of a rachitic three year old girl in filthy rags being shot dead by a Nazi officer, as she desperately ties to retrieve her torn baby doll from under his boot. Another lesson of the book is the gross indifference to the world of the genocide of Jews. Is this really any different +to the equanimity of the world to the mass killing of Jews today by Palestinian terrorists in Israel , on an almost daily basis ? In a sense there is an even greater perversion by the world today, as most of the world, often led by those considered the most 'progressive, shrilly condemn Israel and Jews for defending themselves. Condemn the Jewish people for wanting to survive, for the chance of succeeding where the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto failed. Take these lines: 'Jews where charred into unrecognizable smoldering corpses.
Jews where roasted in bunkers, which where turned into coffins by wind shifts and downdrafts. Jews where choked to death in clouds of smoke which crushed their lungs.' Is this any different to what is going on today every day in Israel, with the bombing of Jews by Arabs . The German officer Horst Von Epp , warns the Nazi's of the consequences of their holocaust , the disaster that will be brought upon them , and about the mark of shame that will stain their memory. The same warning must be made to those who are acting against Israel and the Jews today.
Rating:
Summary: Completely Spellbinding
Review: This is literally one of the best books I've ever read. While it has been criticized for 'over-romanticizing' the Warsaw ghetto, I think that the romantic aspect is important. It helped me, at least, fall in love with the characters myself. The people are well crafted and completely human, from the Nazis soldiers to the Gestapo to the Jews. Mr. Uris not only has a secure grasp on the fine art of incorporating history into fiction, he is also a spellbinding and heart-poundingly good storyteller. This book combines philosophy, history, adventure, tragedy, and romance to incredible effects- I couldn't give it a higher recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: Mila 18
Review: Mila 18 is the most enrapturing book I have ever read. A story of love and compassion, loyalty, and the will to survive is portrayed to the utmost. As we read about Chris and Deborah, Rachael and Wolf, Alex and Stephan, we see what life was really like in the Warsaw Ghetto. This touching, suspenseful novel is truly amazing.
Rating: 
Summary: oversensationalized
Review: Mila 18 is quite the book...unfortunately Mr. Uris, probably influenced somewhat by his extended writing about the Zionist movement and Israel, has "caught the spirit" and over-stated both the success of the warsaw ghetto uprising as well as creating a barely believable soap opera.
If you really want the story of the warsaw ghetto uprising, read "The Wall" by John Hersey - practically the same story told better, written better, and less romaniticized.
Not to say it's not a good book - but The Wall is just better.
Rating: 
Summary: Not at all convinced
Review: The many Leon Uris fans out there will be upset to read an unenthusiastic review of this book, but I hope my reasons for redressing the balance will be clear. The novel exists on two main levels: as a history of real events and as a piece of fiction. In my view it doesn't succeed on either count. If Uris really engaged in lengthy research before writing Mila 18, as he states on the title page, he had a pool of valuable information to draw on for a detailed descriptive account of the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw and more particularly of its inspirational final days. He gives place and street names in detail, with a clear textual description of the layout of the ghetto and reference both to its administration and security forces and to the German controlling authorities. So far so good, and there is no reason to doubt his accuracy. But why then invent so many key characters both in the ghetto and outside? If there was a real-life Andrei or Simon in charge of the Jewish fighting forces, why not give that person's real name and let his historical actions speak for themselves? There must have been a real person in the role of Alexander Brandel, Paul Bronski, Franz Koenig and so on. So why subsume their identities into fictional characters? The end effect is to detract not only from these characters' historicity but from the persuasive power of the genuinely historical events portrayed. The book retreats into fiction - how is the reader to tell which facts, figures and names are authentic, since the salient details of the account are so closely bound up with characters who did not actually exist? So near to the events of 1939-1943, this is an inexcusable approach. For historical accuracy, then, do not rely on Mila 18, but turn instead to an undramatised account such as Israel Gutman's "Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising". So what? It's a novel isn't it? Well yes, but not even a good novel. A good historical novel, firstly, does not falsify the names of leading characters - its fictional heroes are peripheral to the main events of history, viewing them from a particular perspective and not dictating how they turn out. And good novels are generally better constructed and less trite and cliché-ridden than Mila 18. It was written to be a fictional bestseller and therefore starts with a sex scene. Ho-hum. The main fighting characters are drop-dead handsome and almost entirely without moral blemish, and perfect lovers to boot. The leading women are beautiful, courageous, thoroughly resourceful and true to their menfolk. Only minor characters die early on. With one exception (the hedonistic Horst von Epp), the Germans are vile slimy scrofulous people who get their come-uppance. All in all, characterisation is two-dimensional and entirely predictable. The writing style might be termed explosive. Exclamation marks, repetition and non-sentences abound. This approach goes some way to making up for Uris' inability, despite the material at his disposal, to write a moderately interesting descriptive passage. A stark, heart-rending portrayal of what it must have been like to lie in the gutters with thousands of others dying of famine and disease - the smells, the sights and sounds in all their richness and horror? You won't find it here. For one thing. the Andrei Androfskis of this world (and we're really only interested in them and their love lives) are able to shrug off hunger and discomfort and never succumb to illness. So instead of description, how about a few stylistically-challenged explosions of lexemes? This is reasonably effective because readers have imagination and can fill in the blanks for themselves, but it is hardly great prose and I defy any ten-year-old not to be able to churn out the same sort of stuff. To move on to those bugbears of authors writing about foreign countries of which they have little or no experience: historical accuracy, anachronisms and accuracy of the spoken language. The first area I have dealt with in broad terms above, and others writing here have done the same. Beyond considerations of the authenticity of events portrayed during the time period of the novel, various examples of extreme laxness rear their ugly heads. Just one concerns the Italian nobleman, father of journalist Chris de Monti, who would "barrel" around his native land in a red Ferrari at 120 miles an hour - in the year 1910 or so. I think not, on several counts. And couldn't this sort of pratfall cast doubt on other unverifiable details of Uris' historical portrayal? Chris de Monti, one soon realises, is the central figure in the book. Not because he is terrific in bed or because he is a token "good" Christian whose presence will guarantee that non-Jews too will buy the book, but because he speaks American English. What this means for Uris is that de Monti speaks fluent 1950s Americanese, which is acceptable I suppose. At a pinch it is also acceptable that everyone speaking with de Monti (Polish or German) uses the same language and register. Unfortunately, Uris is too lazy to attempt to vary the vernacular when the Poles talk to one another, and certain American slang expressions sit very uneasily on the tongues of characters whose knowledge of the USA is probably limited to Lucky Strike and Charlie Chaplin. So zero for period feel and geographical accuracy. To judge by the overall flavour of reviews here, I am missing a great deal in Uris. Then again, the negative reviews of his latest book, "A God in Ruins" might support my viewpoint, since they echo my feelings about "Mila 18". As a historical author, he cannot compare with a serious student of the events of the Warsaw ghetto. As a fictional writer he doesn't quite stink, for there is a certain compulsiveness about this book which owes a good deal to its superficiality, but I for one won't be bothering with "Exodus" or "Trinity".
Rating:
Summary: Great book!!!
Review: Had to read this book for a class I was taking but it was very enjoyable. I would recommend this book to all my fireinds.
Rating:
Summary: READ THIS BOOK!
Review: Of the hundreds of books i have read, this is without a doubt
the finest i have come across in my 20 years.
Rating: 
Summary: A bit too much politics, not enough action
Review: Mila 18 was not as much of a war novel as I expected it to be. This was the first Leon Uris book that I read and frankly I was somewhat disappointed. I expected that the novel was going to be a gripping story about a Jewish uprisal against the Nazi's during World War II. Unfortunately, the novel dealt more with policies imposed on the Jews by the Nazis. Although this information was interesting and delved into the psyches of the Jewish people under Nazi oppression, it was a bit too drawn out. The title of the book is misleading--the Jews only move into the bunker Mila 18 in about the last 150 pages of the book, at which they stage their uprising. The other 400 or so pages are about the Jews struggling to surive in the ghetto, but believing that they must resist German confrontation. The concluding portion of the book is actually exciting to read but much of the middle is rather boring. I also felt that the book would have been much more enjoyable if it had not tried to have been an epic novel. Instead of focusing around a few central characters, the books tries to portray the story from too many view points. Instead of directing the story around Andrei, the novel manifests the insight of Chris de Monti, Deborah, Wolf, Racheal, and even the Nazis (just to name a few). This causes the novel to lack transistion and effectiveness.
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