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Summary: one of my top all-time favorite novels.
Review: "Engrossing" is the one word I would use to describe Mila 18. Once I was into it, I could barely put it down long enough to tend to other necessary things... like eating and sleeping. I lost weight! I became skittish! And not since reading War and Peace have I felt so riveted to a story. Uris digs down deep into the soul-stretching time of Nazi terror in Eastern Europe, a period of history I am always interested in learning more about. His book is filled with non-stop action, it is tense, it is nerve-wracking. There is a scene where several of the ghetto prisoners are in a desperate scramble along an angled rooftop, and I felt that if one of them had slipped I surely would've fallen off my chair and landed with him amidst the ravenous guards in the courtyard down below. Their reward for NOT falling is to be trapped end-to-end along a single beam in the rafters of that same rooftop for more than a day and a night, unable to make a sound beyond breathing, while rats knaw on them, and the guards furiously stomp about just above their heads, longing to exterminate them as though they were rabid animals. While plumbing these almost unbelievable (but sadly, too true) depths of human cruelty, hatred, and injustice against fellow man, this book also scales the heights of human courage, loyalty, and dignity. And running throughout Mila 18 is the interwoven story of romantic love during perilous times. Because of the peril, some loves are lost and they die; others are found, they are born and they grow. As the resistance forces in the ghetto begin to realize that they cannot stave off the Nazi onslaught indefinitely, the desperation increases... and one man on the other side of the wall (the reporter Christopher de Monti) willingly enters the ghetto. The woman he loves is there. But even beyond this, ever since the Nazi Horst von Epp ridiculed Chris by telling him that he represented "all the moralists in the world who have condoned genocide by the conspiracy of silence" Chris has known that he has a historical role to play inside the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto. He risks his life to become the one who will retrieve and publish the meticulous hidden journals that have been kept up by the chronicler Alexander Brandel. In this he succeeds. It is a remarkable fact of history that while all of Poland fell to the Nazi power in less than a month, this rabble army of Jewish resistance within the ghetto (lacking any decent weapon) held at bay the world's mightiest military power for 42 days and 42 nights! In the end, there are precious few survivors of Mila 18. But this is not a book about death. It is a book about life. <Nephesh!>
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Summary: A breath taking novel!
Review: This was absolutely one of the best books I have ever read. I became engrossed by the charactors, the story, the plot. I laughed, I cried, I screamed. I didn't want it to end. Everyone should take the time to read a book that tells so much about a very important time in the world. This book is definitely one that must be on your reading list.
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Summary: Mila 18 is wonderful
Review: Leon Uris is one of my favorite authors; he has a very distinct style in which he gives a detailed background of the history behind each character. The lines between fiction and history are so easily blurred in his novels that I find myself wondering what really happpened. Uris continues to amaze me! Each story that he tells is more powerful than the next. Mila 18 is wonderful.
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Summary: Didn't want it to end
Review: It is captivating, uplifting, saddening and historically informative all at the same time. I was so enthralled by the book I read it much too quickly. And when it was getting towards the end I would put it down and just sit and think before reading any more so that it would last a little longer. I'm not informed on the history of Polish Jews in Warsaw during WWII so I can't say how factual it is, but thats not the most important quality of the book. The real wonder is how much it makes you feel, not know.
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Summary: A Master Storyteller...
Review: has done it again. Mr.uris has taken a part of the WWII saga that does not get much play and written a magnificent novel. The setting is the Warsaw ghetto during the War. The story involves many larger than life characters. The men are heroic nad complex and the women are beautiful and strong. The book lifts up the human spirit. Fans of historical fiction or just plain good storytelling will be enthralled.
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Summary: a endearing look the human condition
Review: i have been a huge fan of Uris since i read TRINITY over the summer. this book has the power to capture the thread of human frailty and display it for the world to see. the characters, even the evil Nazis, are honestly written, all the complexities, both good and bad, are exposed. the power Uris has to commentate honestly about the true nature of man and what he is capable of is staggering to me. i once heard someone say that people are their best when things are at their worst, and this book proves it.
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Summary: It Will Tear Your Heart Out
Review: I can think of no one writing who does a better job than Leon Uris of drawing you into the events of history, showing you the inside of those events and thus, turning history into a personal experience. This is not an easy read, but it's one everyone should undertake, just as everyone who has the opportunity should visit the Holocaust Muzeum in Washington, D. C. It is too horrible to accept, let alone understand, but this book helps, and God forbid that we ever forget. This book will help, and while "entertaining" is not a word I'd use to describe this masterpiece, it is riviting and unforgettable.
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Summary: Amazing book!
Review: I'm a senior in high school, and I read this book before going on a trip to Poland and Israel to prepare me for the experience. It was absolutely amazing-in fact, it was so good that seeing the real Warsaw ghetto was actually a disappointment, just because the book gave me such high expectations for it. The book is an amazing description of the conditions the Jews had to face at that time, and mixed in are a few personal stories that make the book impossible to put down. Leon Uris is definitely one of the greatest authors in recent history, and this book is a big reason why.
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Summary: BUY THIS BOOK
Review: This is one of the bests books I have ever read, it fills your body with adrenaline, when you read abuot the jews in the ghetto, when you read how they were able to stop the nazis for more than a month with a few guns, bricks, stones, and home-made bombs such as molotov coktails. It is very deep, when you feel the pain that the people who lived in the ghetto had to live with, when you read how the nazis deported thousands of people to the death camps,you understand that when a few group of starved, sick, and poorly armed jews fighted against the Reinhard division, was one of the most heroic act in history. you wont be able to drop this book until you finish it, if you like this book you will also like to read EXODO, also by Leon Uris.
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Summary: A Uris Classic
Review: Mila 18 is my other favorite Uris book (besides Trinity). The way he manages to convey the build-up of pre-war tension and then chart the inexorable Nazi regime and their persecution of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto is incredible. The one warning I would give to anyone reading this book is that you become so caught up in the saga that it is a little difficult to return to "real life". You WILL get depressed - and yet the power and hope Uris embues in you for belief in human nature and man's ability to survive is wonderful. Have lots of Kleenex available.
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