Rating: 
Summary: it's true
Review: I, like many readers, could not let the book out of my hands. I took it to work. Read it before work. Read it at lunch time. Read it after work. Read it through dinner and to bed for two days. The writing is not pretty. It is written in unflowery language and sounds like a journal, which, to me, makes it taste, feel, and sound authentic, real and powerful. It makes you sick, happy, sad, horrified, terrified, nervous, anxious, tired, joyful, and thankful. I've never felt all of these emotions in such a short book. I savored every word and reread passages that just astonished me. This is a book and tale that will live on with Slavomir's memory. I myself spent 2 years in a foreign land, went through many hardships and joyful events. I can understand that when the event is over with, you don't want to revisit it because it is a blessed and horrific event that you have tackled and experienced. I'm glad someone has written something like this to express those feelings in print.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Excellent
Review: This is an incredible read. It really makes you appreciate the lengths the human spirit will go to for freedom. A very inspiring story!
Rating:
Summary: WWII Scholar Weighs In
Review: I would like to add another voice to the "fake/nonfake" debate, especially because The Long Walk is truly an important historical contribution to WWII testimonies, and one that does not deserve to be discounted for its seemingly unbelievable tale. The trek from Siberia, which was made by many Poles who were captured in the late 1930s and early 1940s, is a well-documented phenomenon, and one might consider looking into further scholarship on the Polish Free Army if this book caught your interest. Their paths were not identical, but many of them ended up in the middle-east where they were later trained as combat soldiers or paratroopers by the British (particularly in Iraq). There are several documentary films that have been made on this trek, with supporting evidence, but the problem remains that most of them are in Polish. Moreover, the deeds of these Polish officers and soldiers are often passed over in favor of the stories of the official victors (America, Britain, France, Russia) or their victims (Japan, Germany). The historical phenomenon is by no means false or untrue. I have interviewed too many survivors of these treks from Siberia and seen too much supporting documentation not to believe that these events occured. That said, when reading any "survivor" account, one must keep in mind that memory itself is a construct that is pressured by several factors: duress, psychological state of mind, hunger and hallucination, the passage of time, loss of mnemonic capability as one ages, and political/historical/religious world view. No memory is "truth," per se, but the manner in which it is remembered tells us something about the event and the person who endured it. One must also keep in mind that "survival" has proven itself capable throughout history of inspiring deeds that seem unimaginable, and just because a story seems fantastical does not mean that it is fake. After all, this book is about the "memory of a long walk" and not a "nothing but the facts" account of a historical act. It is one man's story, which has immediate cultural, historical, and personal implications. Denial of the historical merit (and honesty) of this book is truly a shame, and a step backwards in understanding the experience of Polish detainees during WWII, a generally forgotten history in the first place. I would encourage those with an interest in WWII to add this book to your shelf. This experience seriously scarred many of the men who endured (and survived) it. Their memory deserves our respect and not our denial of their suffering.
Rating:
Summary: The true meaning of persevearnance
Review: Whether or not this story is "true" as some readers have claimed it was a fake, in many respects is completely irrelevant to two facts about the book. First the book reads incredibly well, due to the outstanding writing that encompasses the book. The second fact is that even if the story is a "fake" it is a story that reminds us of the power of the human spirit. When truly motivated, we can achieve great things. The narrator of the book/writer of the book develops a true tale in which the reader becomes intimately connected with the perils of crossing the harsh Siberian,Chinese, and Himalayan landscapes. The tradgedies that besets the party on their travels in many ways beset the read as well. The triumph and joy that the party experiences is experienced by the reader as well. As a reader of this book, you find yourself pulling for the success of the party in their ventures. Personally, I believe tha this story is true. Just because the characters encountered great difficulties in their travels doesn't make it fake. However, even if you choose to believe it is a falsehood, fiction does provide us with inspiration, which is how anyone should approach this book.
Rating:
Summary: How can you tell it is fake?
Review: Well, I do not know if this particular story is true or not, but my own great grandfather made a trip from Vladyvostok to Poland in app. 1875. He was forced into Russian army after January Uprising of 1863-1865. He was 16 at that time. He spent 12 years in Russian army and tried to escape many times. Finally he succeded. Similarly millions of Poles were deported to Siberia from eighteen to twenieth century. Most of them perished. Some of them survived and returned to civilization, sometimes in extraordinary circumstances, via Japan, China, Persia etc. Their lives were absolutly amazing. History of Poland may seem stranger than fiction. Most Americans have no clue about it. Their vision has been shaped by Polish jokes and Hollywood movies about WWII which are not that faithful in depiction of historical truth (The Pianist is an exeption). Just study the subject a little more before you judge something to be false (or true), as your knowledge of the outside world is surprizingly limited!
Rating: 
Summary: Fake but intresting reading
Review: Good reading but unbelieble if one considers the 4000 mile journey across what even today is forbidden and desolate country. Why did it take so long to come up with this story.
All those that survived just faded away. Consider the american engineer alone, he would certainly have known the value of this story regarding Books and movie rights. I think this book could not have survived scrutiny right after the war At that time the story could have easily been checked but making this such an accidental discovery some 50 years later makes verification impossible
Rating: 
Summary: Fake
Review: My impession is that it is fake. It just doesn't feel true. I've read quite a few books on various prison camps in various wars and this book just doesn't ring true. The polish prisioners speak using british slang. There was no name gathering. No documentation. I don't believe they'd be in any shape to make a 4,000 mile trek from freezing Siberia, over the Himalayas, thru deserts etc. Slavomir Rawicz also claims to have seen Bigfoot. He describes an encounter with two 8 foot tall creatures somewhere between Bhutan and Sikkim. According to Slavomir, he and his companions watched the outsized beasts for over 2 hours, from a distance of 100 yards.
I just resently finished Ghost Soldiers: Hamptton Sides. Now there's a true story about a forced march to two prison camps and a rescue/escape. I've always known about Bataan's POW death march and 3.5 years imprisonment but this was mt first book.
Rating:
Summary: a true journey of discovery
Review: this is one one of the first books i read as far as 'real-life-non-fiction' goes. to be honest i read it several years a go but it is that which helped me delve into the world of non-ficton. someone suggested it, because i love a travel narrative, and i found it to be one of the best novels-by-way-of-nonfiction i may ever come across. I have looked far and wide, and there are few( please email me with anything i have missed, if you please, i beg..)i have not read a personal narrative more moving and page-turning as this. you truly won't believe that which you are reading all the way to the very last page! An incredible journey that truly separates the hardship of one or two generations to thenext. we will never experience this desperation and the endurance of their journey shall never be duplicated again in our lifetimews.. reads truly like a page-turning novel.. magnificent!!
Rating:
Summary: One Star for the Story
Review: There's no use to discuss the "truth" of this book, as it
has been shown to be complete fiction already over 40 years
ago. The interesting thing is that most people really do not
use their brains when they are reading. So they constantly
tend to mix fact with fiction and vice versa...The evidence
that the whole book is pure fiction is in the book itself and
not so hard to find either!
Rating:
Summary: Whew!
Review: Given my reading speed, this was one of those rare books that I started and finished in less than a week. Oftentimes, I wondered to myself how much of this was actually true. If the author did not have the chance to transcribe his memories into writing until decades later, it is amazing how the story was told to the last detail. Even the conversations and thoughts, perhaps vaguely remembered, seemed believable. The writing itself, however, was well done that I could dwell in the author's experiences and allow myself to imagine the far reaches of his and his companions' motivation to survive and the limits of their endurance, both physical and emotional. The geography of their "long walk" was all the more remarkable considering there was not really any better alternative. If they veered a little more to the southwest, they could have traversed the Altai Mountains, the Tien Shan, and the Taklamakan desert, plus some of the other formidable ranges of Central Asia that survival might be even less likely. Navigating by the rising and setting of the sun and the instinct for survival were their means of accomplishing their goal. Although the book ended abruptly, I would still give the author credit for some fine points. For example, the sighting of two mysterious figures in the Himalayan foothills was written in a cautious manner and was in no way sensational (mention of the abominable snowman was saved to the end of that particular episode). The memory of the sense of scale and landmarks that foretold the near accomplishment of their goal, such as the first mountain range that marked the beginning of the Kunlun mountains and the last mountain range that marked the end of the Himalayas, was telling. The almost limitless hospitality accorded to them by the nomads and the western Chinese/Tibetans was very touching. Not to mention the sense of loss over three of his companions. Of course, there were also the harrowing memories of his imprisonment, his trials, and his trans-Siberian trip by train and by foot to oblivion. I could not help wondering which would have been the lesser of two evils: to stay in gulag hell or to escape to nowhereland. The author's will to survive won out.
If you want to read someone's memoirs of a geography that covered the breadth from northern forests to deserts to mountain ranges, from bitter cold to searing heat--in the throes of survival--this is it.
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