Fraud or Not, It's Compelling-as

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	• The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom Slavomir Rawicz The Lyons Press, 2006 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 292 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

An Amazing Story, If True

This book has been thoroughly reviewed on Amazon already. I add this review in the hopes on contributing something to the discussion.

This is the story of Slavomir Rawicz, a Polish cadet who was arrested by the Soviets on false charges and sentenced to prison in Siberia for 25 years, and of his amazing escape south, across 4,000 miles past Lake Baikal, through Mongolia, across the Gobi Desert, over the Himalayas, and finally into British India. The book is engaging, extremely well-written, heart-breaking and inspiring.

The problem is that it may not be true. I agree with other commenters that the book loses all of its value as an inspirational story if it was fabricated. My five-star review assumes that it is true.

Critics of the book can rely on two types of evidence: internal and external. (I reject objections that such a journey is impossible. Modern adventurers have retraced Rawicz' steps; granted, they were much better equipped, but they also weren't fleeing for their lives).

The external evidence shows that Rawicz was released from prison and sent back to Poland; that the British (probably) have no record of Rawicz or his companions arriving from the Tibetan plateau; that no one has ever located or identified his companions. The first objection can be met by pointing out that the Soviet Cheka was not necessarily above forging documents, especially if necessary to avoid a humiliating admission that seven prisoners escaped. The second objection is undermined by the history of the book's criticisms -- for years, people pointed out that the Soviets had no record of Rawicz' imprisonment at all. The discovery of his papers is a dramatic illustration that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

The final point is simply a mystery. One would expect that Rawicz's companions would try to contact him after the book was published. But that assumes his companions survived long enough to do so -- they arrived in India in 1942, and the book was not published until 1956. It is possible they died, or returned to their homes in communist countries and never saw the book, or were imprisoned again. Of course, all we can do is speculate.

For me, the more interesting question concerns the internal evidence. Is Rawicz' description of a Soviet prison camp consistent with actual practice? When Rawicz crossed the border into Mongolia, he described a series of signs marking the border -- is his description accurate? He describes the clothing, houses and certain material culture in Mongolia, China and Tibet -- is it consistent with local practice at that time?

Adventurer Peter Fleming supposedly challenged the internal evidence as unrealistic shortly after the book was published, but I have not found a copy of Fleming's specific charges, so I cannot evaluate them. In addition, according to a wikipedia article on Rawicz, Fleming supposedly discovered military records that contradicted Rawicz' claims. One must wonder why Fleming would bother with such external evidence if he thought the case against the internal evidence was so clear.

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Human endurance is unbelievable

This book was impossible to put down. If I hadn't known it was a true story, I would have thought it fiction. The human spirit and longing for freedom is truly the basis for their endeavor.

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Outstanding Read!

Rawicz's trek is an amazing story, and a great read. His voice comes through so strongly, and authentically that you find ourself with him almost every step of his journey.

A good read.

After reading snippets of this book for years, I finally got it. The story was interesting and entertaining from the initial captivity in the European prisoner camp, through the trek to the Siberian camp, until the end of the long walk that led from Siberia to freedom.

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Fraud or Not, It's Compelling-as

Well, the story itself may be untrue, and come to a point where it's even farcical in what it tries to put over on readers (seeing a pair of menacing yetis in the Himalayas while crossing the mountains in winter with all of rusty wire and animal dung as provisions). But! This is a moot point, because as a tale, it's first-rate. If you can allow the fraud (and there's no real reason to get upset about it), there are large rewards to be had from The Long Walk. The story of the trek to freedom is incredible and very compelling, page b' page. The prose isn't the best, but it serves its singular point well in keeping the action moving and gripping. It's entirely designed in this way, to be a terrific story, and true or not, it only assists itself with all its narrative tendencies.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

"I hope The Long Walk will remain as a memorial to all those who live and die for freedom, and for all those who for many reasons could not speak for themselves."--Slavomir Rawicz

In 1941, the author and six other fellow prisoners escaped a Soviet labor camp in Yakutsk--a camp where enduring hunger, cold, untended wounds, untreated illnesses, and avoiding daily executions were everyday feats. Their march--over thousands of miles by foot--out of Siberia, through China, the Gobi Desert, Tibet, and over the Himalayas to British India is a remarkable statement about man's desire to be free.

While the original book sold hundreds of thousands of copies, this updated paperback version includes a new Afterword by the author, as well as the author's Foreword to the Polish book. Written in a hauntingly detailed, no holds barred way, the new edition of The Long Walk is destined to outrank its classic status and guaranteed to forever stay in the reader's mind.

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