The Bridge at Andau was written in the mid 1950’s by James A. Michener. This isa documentary on the account of Hungary’s people and the communist influencefrom Russia.
Although the people of Hungary lost in their fights with the ADOand the Russians, they showed us how determination and the will to survive canovercome even the strongest evil. It is a shame that they didn’t overcome allint he end. Michener did an excellent job in preserving and recording theaccount of the Hungarian people as they were mistreated, abused, and murdered bythe Russians. The torture and abuse that is described is simply unbelievable. Communism surely is a terrible governmental system. Michener’s extremely graphicdescriptions gave you the ability to create a very vivid picture in your head.
The terrible things done to torture the people were described down to every lastdetail. And the fights with the ADO and the Russian tanks were described so wellthat it made you feel like you were there. The book could have been better if ithad been a little less thorough, although all the details did add to some parts,it did start to get monotonous. If the whole book would have been written asfirst person, or actually in the life of one person, and he would have droppedthe documentary stuff, it would have been a lot more interesting and morereadable. To think that humans could treat other humans the way that the ADO andthe Russians did is insane. To make some one stand staring into a bright lightuntil the pass out and then beating the persons friends as punishment isinhuman.
The routine beatings and torture just for fun is pure evil, theRussians have shown that this is what Communism stands for and that it is evil. This book is highly recommended as an eye opening tragedy but it takes a lot oftime to read and understand. It shows how the Hungarian’s will to survive andtheir determination overcame the Russians, the ADO, and Communism, even if theirvictory didn’t last very long.Book Reports
