Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968 | Heda Margolius Kovaly

Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968 | Heda Margolius Kovaly | Insightful!

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Under a Cruel Star...

	Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968 Heda Margolius Kovaly Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1997 - 192 pages average customer review:based on 22 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

I usually don't like to read about this sort of thing....

....but Under a Cruel Star is an excellent book. As a history major, I have to slosh through a lot of stuff that's not necessarily interesting or engaging, so Kovaly's book was a breath of fresh air. It was eminently readable and fascinating -- I had two weeks to read it and finished it within the space of a few hours because I just couldn't bring myself to put it down. She does a good job in her memoir of showing us what life in Prague was like after the Germans came and were followed by the Stalinists (I cannot say Communists, because Communists they were not). Her tale is gripping, speaking of the dearest hope of a people with no hope left, only to be betrayed by those who offered them the very hope that sustained them. An excellent read.

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Insightful!

I think anyone who is interested to learn more about Communism in general should read this book. I think the author did a good job in analyzing the situation and providing insightful information on life under the communists. She gave a vivid account on how her husband, who held one a high position in the government was convicted and executed. Her life was practically ruined when people learned or led to believe that her husband was a traitor. She was denied of proper medical care, was fired at every job, was relocated to a shack and how everyone who assosiated themselves with her would lose their job.

What I like about this book is that we get to know how it was like for civilians and for people who were related to government officials, live. It was fearful, dark, full of betrayal and worst of all, selfishness. Even though people who carried out orders knew that it was not justified, they did nothing about it. Her husband, under illegal interogations and was led to believe that if he agreed to confess to those charges, the author and her child would be safe. In fact, it was far from it.

This book is a combination of both history and personal account which I find very interesting. Mrs Heda Margolius Kovaly bringing her readers from the time she was held in concentration camp to period when she returned to Prague and how communism took over the country. Another book I would recommend is Nien Cheng's "Life and Death in Shanghai" which gave an account of life in prison, under constant interogation.

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A couragious woman's Life

One of the most moving cronicles of a war-experience I ever read.
Written in an honest direct way which cannot help but shatter nerves.
Heda Kovaly survives the unimaginable. Never loses her sincerity and belief in people. She has an incredible insight in human nature. Her grief is overwhelming and one feels it with her every inch of the way.
But her moral strength is that of nearly inhuman proportion.
This book should be required reading for all highschool students around the world. Together with the "Diary of Anne Frank" it covers 30 years of European history, hands on.
I have read it over and over again and never fail to marvel at this physically tiny woman with the heart of a lion.

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One of my favorite non-fiction books

This is an excellent book by a woman who survived Auschwitz and the Iron Curtain. The best part is her description of life in Czechoslovakia under communism. Although this isn't a scholarly work, she shows amazing insightfulness about how communism operated and where it went wrong. The reviewer who called this an unrecognized classic is right -- it's a fascinating read, and you'll learn something!

Gruesome Luck

This book is simply amazing. Kovaly has had the most terrible luck imaginable (jailed in a Nazi Concentration Camp AND Stalinist Prague). She describes her life, as well as the inherent similarities/problems with Stalinism and Nazism. If you want a WWII & Cold war historical account, a gripping biography or a description of totalitarian regimes, this book is for you.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5

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