Rating: 
Summary: Fictional Autobiography
Review: I've read the book and think it makes a good story, but nothing
more. There are things in this story that reveal it is purely fictional. First, there is no way you can walk 30 miles a day
in at least three feet of snow in subzero temperatures. You have
to have skis! Without skis, you can walk no more than 3 to 5 miles in those conditions. This is common knowledge to all us living in the same latitude and climate. As for making a hole in the ice in a Siberian river with ice thicknesses of over 3 feet. It is hard as steel and there is no way you can punch a hole in it using a block of wood! It is totally impossible. How about getting wet, wringing the wet clothes and putting them back on in subzero temperatures and howling wind? Gimme a break! You'll just freeze all over. And what about walking through the Gobi desert without a drop of water? I mean, given the high temperatures in that area, you can
manage without water no more than 6 to 9 hours! And this guy tells us that they walked for days without so much as a drop of water! I would advise the publisher the check this guy out and change the heading from Autobiography/Adventure to Fiction. That is,if there really exists such a man as Rawicz, which I seriously doubt.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow!
Review: This is truly one of the most memorable books I've read in quite some time. Extremely well-written, it is absolutely engrossing from the very first page.Rawicz's courage and grace under extreme duress is amazing. Highly recommended even if you don't typically like adventure stories.
Rating:
Summary: Gene
Review: A five-star book. An interesting true story of survival. A book unashamed to tell the truth about the Soviet evils of the "work camp" and the conquest of Poland.
Rating:
Summary: The haunting description of the abominable snowmen.
Review: I have read this book several times. It's a good read for someone going thru trying conditions.
The part about the encounter with the two abominable snowmen (or were they male and female?) was very engaging. He describes them in some detail, which surpasses some of the stories you hear about them.
Rating:
Summary: Long Walk, Tall Story
Review: The book makes for a great read, but frankly I had a hard time believing it was true. The bits that bothered me in particular were:
1. Mister Smith
An American whose personal name is conveniently never revealed. He also speaks perfect Russian (an impossible feat for a non-native speaker);
2. Kristina Polanska
She dies as suddenly as they encounter her, a 17 year old Polish girl wandering around by herself in the middle of Siberia;
3. The wife of the commissar
Assists the prisoners to escape - how convenient!
4. The abominable snowmen
What's Slav been smoking?
5. Through the Gobi with no water
No way
6. Odd decisions
Why don't they go down the silkroad or go to Lhasa - why take the hard way?
7. No detail about rescue in India
So no verification could be made?Sorry, but it sounds to me as though Slav dreamt it all up lying in his bunk in Siberian Camp 303 to while away the hours. What about all the detail about Mongol habits and customs? He had plenty of people who had met them to talk to - fellow prisoners who had been to Mongolia. Shame because it's a damn good yarn
Rating:
Summary: Answer to the non-believers
Review: The reviewers who don't believe that this is a true story have never talked to actual survivors of Soviet prison camps, nor read any of their stories - they belong to the group that do not believe that German death camps existed. Shackleton's story of his voyage in a small open boat through the roaring Fifties, and then his walk across uncharted mountains on the island of South Georgia, sounds equally unbelievable. Many books have been written by survivors of the Gulags, unfortunately not many in English. This story is heart wrenching in its descriptions of the hardships suffered by the group in their quest for freedom. Undoubtedly some details may have been embellished, and actual facts were forgotten. After all the survivors spent four weeks in hospital in delirium after reaching India. Some reviewers doubt that the few inhabitants of the wilds of Mongolia and Tibet, encountered by the group, treated them so kindly. Many stories about the hospitality of the villagers in these remote hamlets have been written. They do not believe that the Soviet camp was so lightly guarded. They did not read very carefully, the conditions described make it clear that escape was almost impossible. Devil's Island was lightly guarded for the same reason. I believe the story and find it a remarkable testimony to the intense desire for freedom. By all means you should read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Did this happen?
Review: Firstly, I must say that if you are reading this review you should buy the book. It is an amazing account of the trials that people will go through. Yet, like many others, the tale is too amazing to believe. Firstly, the escape from the actual camp is far too easy. After reading A Prisoner's Duty by Robert C. Doyle I find it hard to beleive that the escape was so easy. Doyle's book is devoted to how hard it was to simply breach the fortifications of even the most lightly guarded facilites. Then Doyle talks about how hard it was to often escape even 100 miles. In this book the escapers not only escape easily but trek about 2,500 miles. To me this seems too amazing to beleive.
Even with this though, the book should be read to remind people to be thankfull that no matter how bad life becomes there are far worse fates.
Rating:
Summary: What an incredible stroy!!
Review: Too bad it's unlikely to be true. Slavomir presents the reader with at least a half dozen incidents that are too hard to swallow. Any one of them would have represented an astonishing convergence of circumstances, but so many.....and to one man. My heart wants to believe but my mind tells me otherwise. The inability to locate Mr. Smith or even a descendent is what most raises my eyebrow, and I beleive that the selection of America's most common name 'Smith' was very calculated. In order for old Slavomir to write this story one would have to believe that he had experienced at least a part of it....and that's the real shame of the "The Long Walk".....I prefer a true yet less eventful story over a fairy tale any day. If by some miracle Mr. Rawicz did manage to walk from Siberia to India without so much as a container to carry water....and while in route he encountered the abominable snowman.....then I offer the sincerest of apologies. I give 3 stars for an incredible story and an admirable ability to generate controversy and sell books.
Rating:
Summary: Attracted to the "Odyssey" Genre?
Review: Then this book is definitely for you. We are fascinated by these sorts of accounts, and the stunning strength of human endurance they emphasize. If not for accurate descriptions of many points along the way, you'd be tempted to think this Polish officer's oddysey from s. Siberia to n. India was pure fantasy. The only element some might call fantasy is his account of "yetis" in the Himalayas. But his account is so matter-of-fact in all other aspects (if in fact, ANY of the trek really happened), its hard to discount it. He was only looking to survive; he was not on a "monster-hunt"; and by the time his account was recorded, he surely knew he could be labeled a "nut" for including this in his account. As other reviewers indicate, in fact, it might have been nice if some of the British soldiers in India, or somebody, had been contacted to CONFIRM this trek. Anyway, that wasn't the reason we loved the book. How many people would have dared those unimaginable distances, full well aware of how distant any freedom or repatriation might be? There are many-better documented-accounts of such journeys. These books are also a cautionary tale to archaeologists (which we are), who are (by profession) insecure with the concept that small bands can cover huge distances, leaving no material trace of their passage. But humans-even in our own time-HAVE covered huge chunks of the globe; on foot. In that same vein, and if you love this book, find: "Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America", Cabeza de Vaca's similar (although 400 years earlier) memoir of wanderings in America. Its a stunning story that deserves more than the historical obscurity it has.
Rating:
Summary: Surprise ending
Review: The other reviews cover the details of this amazing tale, and give speculation about its veracity. I found it extremely hard to believe that, once they had passed out of Siberia and well into Mongolia, and had encountered friendly natives, they would still have the mentality of needing to escape at any cost. It is hard to believe that even a desperate person, with impaired judgement, would set out on a journey through the Gobi desert with no water containers, and inadequate food. Why wouldn't they have at least obtained some sort of vessel before embarking on that journey? This problem continued to confound me, until the end of the book when we learn that the travellers went into an extended delirium upon their rescue. Indeed, they were far from being in their right minds. As retold years later, it would be hard for us to crawl inside their heads while on the journey, and the author conveys the information in too logical a format. In fact, these guys were half-crazed on this journey, and bad judgement was probably more common than not.
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