Rating: 
Summary: Truly remarkable.
Review: In the most basic sense of the word. My father searched for years to find this book, having read a review of it long ago. When it was published again, my father took advantage and spent the better part of a year passing copies of this book along to many fortunate individuals like myself. (You must understand that my father is not the kind of man who would give away books that he LOVES.) My copy alone has passed through the hands of another 10 people. That fact alone is an incredibly favorable review. There is something fundamentally heartbreaking and awe-inspiring in this tale. While reading it in the comfort of your home, it is hard to imagine the initial thrill of fear in escape, the consuming thirst of the Gobi desert, and the intense cold of the Himalayas. To have endured so much so that when they came across the yeti, its peculiar existence atop frigid mountains was not as extrodinary when compared to the plight of their own trek, even to the reader. The simple carnal desire for survival propelled them (and us) past a creature of legend and on into India. So few humans have lived to tell of an experience of that magnitude. Therefore, how many of us can truly comprehend it or express our empathy without paling in comparison? All I can do is to continue to pass this book along. I am online to purchase a copy for my new in-laws. That is the best form of compliment I can think of.
Rating:
Summary: Best book I've E-V-E-R read.(PERIOD!)
Review: I came across this book by accident, the story is un-describe-able in mere words. It has to be READ to be experienced. I took the book to work to loan to a friend, and ended up not getting it back until 3 men and 2 women each ended up borrowing it...none of which took more than 2 days (AT THE MOST) to read it. Very gripping, the best survival story I've ever come across. It is by far, the strongest yearning I have ever heard of a man's quest for freedom and what that desire drove him through to obtain it
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: The true story of a Polish cavalry lieutenant who was arrested after the 1939 invasion, sent to a Siberian labor camp and then escaped and walked 2,000 miles across Siberia, Mongolia, the Gobi Desert and the Himalayas with almost no supplies. Every review I'd read of this book says things like...thrilling...Homeric...awe-inspiring...gripping. After reading it I'd have to say that all of those are understatements. Drop whatever you're doing and buy, beg, borrow or steal this book. Now
Rating:
Summary: Stunning! An epic adventure beyond compare.
Review: The Long Walk is one of the most fascinating stories I have ever read and was almost lost to the annuls of history, but for the chance encounter of a yeti. Just read the book to understand what I am saying. It is a book you cannot afford to miss
Rating:
Summary: A real life 4000 mile trek to freedom.
Review: The Long Walk, by Slavomir Rawicz, is the true account of7 men who, after being wrongly imprisoned in Stalin's gulagin 1940, escape and begin what turns out to be a 4000 mile trek to freedom. Rawicz is a 24 year old Polish cavalry officer arrested on trumped-up charges of spying when Poland is overrun by the Nazis and the Soviets. Rawicz' account of his ordeal begins in his native Poland, with his arrest on charges of espionage. Rawicz' narrative takes the reader from his beloved homeland to Kharkov, USSR where he is interrogated and tortured for the better part of a year. From there Rawicz takes the reader to Moscow during which his informal and meaningless trial takes place, followed by a sentence of 25 years' imprisonment in Stalin's netherworld of the gulag. Throughout the entire narrative of this journey, the reader is struck not only by the brutal realities associated with life in Stalin's prison system, but of the inexstinguishable will to survive. Rawicz and 6 companions travel more than 4000 miles over some of the most inhospitable terrain in the world seeking the only thing that truly matters: freedom! Fleeing their labor camp in Siberia, Rawicz and his fellow escapees travel from the frozen isolation of Siberia to the arid landscape of the Gobi desert in Mongolia, through the hinterland of China, into Tibet, and then on into northern India. The Long Walk blends misfortune, adventure, courage, and man's indomitable will to survive and live freely. This is a story unlike anything you've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing story
Review: It is hard to imagine the hardships that Rawicz went through during WWII. He was a Polish soldier, newly married, and, along with a mysterious American, was captured and confined in a prison in Moscow. They were then sent by rail to a location south of Lake Baikal and forced to march hundreds of miles north where they had to build their own prison camp. He and others, including the American, escaped in the dead of winter so that the snow would cover their tracks. Always fearful of being captured by the Russians, they often walked at night. They marched south for about a year, crossing the Gobi desert and the Himalayan mountains (one chapter gives a quite credible account of seeing a pair of Abdominable snowmen). After reaching India and recovering in a hospital, the survivors went their separate ways. (Look at a map - they marched from northern Lake Baikal to India!!) The amount of suffering described is unimaginable.
The book ends there. However, I was so intrigued that I wrote the publisher (in early 1995) and received a nice letter from Rawicz, now living in Nottinghamshire, England! Unfortunately, none of the survivors of the long walk ever reunited again. The mysterious American has remained just that (Rawicz theorizes that he may have been an intelligence officer and thus maintained secrecy - he went by the name Mr. Smith). This book was orignally written in the early 1950s.
Rating:
Summary: history
Review: It is certainly a good idea to be skeptical about any historical account, and this one particularly invites such skepticism because of the lack of corroboration from the other persons involved. However, I found that the entire story is very plausible. The writing style is quite straight foward and humorless, but that is just the style this story calls for. I think it is a fascinating book. I have read it twice. It would be instructive for anyone wishing to get a first hand account of the inhumanity of the totalitarian state.
Rating: 
Summary: a journey that never happened
Review: There is nothing true about the story told in the book.
It belongs in the same scrap-heap as tales of UFO abductions.The book was produced originally by a british reporter
hungry for Yeti-stories and a polish refugee who called
himself Slavimor Rawicz. The credible parts of it contain
bits and pieces of the experiences of REAL polish refugees
who suffered in the soviet union at the time, but the bulk
of the story is made up. It may even be the case that he
actually might have been in the USSR and did escape, as others
did through Afghanistan or Persia. Though among those who
did escape for real, no one remembered him or knew him in
the 1950s. It is strongly suspected that the british "translator" (or
in reality co-author) created the path of his journey out
through Tibet and India so he could insert the material about
the snowman sighting for his own purposes. In the 1950s when the story was fresh, British Officials in
India were found and asked about it. The polish exile records
were searched. Nothing was found. Again, when the soviet
and polish records opened up, nothing was there. The journey
itself as described makes no sense and doesn't line up with
the real geography. Slavimor Rawicz may have actually
had a real story to tell, but since publication of this book
whatever that real story was has been lost behind a whole
tapestry of lies that is "the long walk". Even more tragic is the bodyguard of liars and fanatics who
have promoted these made-up stories. The stories of real poles
who suffered during the same period are ignored in favor of
pulp trash like this.
Rating: 
Summary: A great examination of the surviving spirit
Review: There have have been questions about the truth od this book. What rings true is the deep emotional turmoil of the author as he hangs on to his hatred for his tormentors, and there's no doubt thess dark passions helped spur him on during his long and often seeminly endless trek. It's a sad book. An amazing journey of the mind and the soul can be found in IN THE GHOST COUNTRY by Peter Hillary, a mind-bending account of his haunted journey to the South Pole. Deep stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: not believable
Review: This book purports to describe the travels of a polish
officer in 1942 escaping from Siberia across China and
into freedom in India. As a travel book, it doesn't
hold up. As anyone who has travelled to these areas can
tell you, no small unsupported group of people is going
to just walk across those deserts without water or cross through
Tibet north to south during the coldest months of the year.
There are no landmarks to speak of presented in the book that
in any way line up to the geography of where he claims to have
gone. Beyond that, his story of escape from the russian camp is pure unbelievable melodrama. And for good measure, it contains
a bigfoot (or snowman) sighting near the end. I suppose a few people will believe that some of the worst
deserts in the world are just there to walk across or that
you can just kind of find your way over the Himalayas during
the coldest part of the year to India. I also couldn't help but wonder where his companions ended up
after. Did they all just fall off the face of the earth
after arriving in India? And on a journey like this, why would
you only know one of your companions as "Mr. Smith". Most people
would learn the entire life stories of the others on a trip like
this supposedly was. Or at the very least learn the names of
those your moving with. If you want to read real survival stories, try something
about Shakelton or the book Great Heart.
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