The Good Soldier: From Austrian Social Democracy to Communist Captivity with a Soldier of...

The Good Soldier: From Austrian Social Democracy to Communist Captivity with a Soldier of Panzer-Grenadier ... | Alfred Novotny | Recall of WWII in Austria

books:

The Good Soldier: ...

	The Good Soldier: From Austrian Social Democracy to Communist Captivity with a Soldier of Panzer-Grenadier ... Alfred Novotny The Aberjona Press, 2002 - 160 pages average customer review:based on 26 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

A survivor's legacy

The Good Soldier, by Alfred Novotny is a story of one man's resilience and undimished humanity in the face of incredible hardships - ending on cautionary advice for the reader.

I found his account refreshingly free of bowlderization of his youthful embrace of the promises of Nazi politics in Austria in the late 30's, which would prove to have horrific consequences. Despite this, his memoire is refreshingly candid and written with surprising humor, given the ordeals he suffered as a "good soldier"in WWII and the subsequent imprisonment by the Soviets for 2 1/2 years after the wars end.

His emigirant experiences in the US again reveal the resiliency that sustained his survival of war and prison, and led, I was happy to read, to success as a restauranteur in the American mid-west. It is however, the cautionary message in the very last pages of his book that set this survivor's tale apart for me. He warns the reader against being seduced by militaristic patriotic propaganda in our own times. He muses, "I still wonder how it all happened...this orgy of killing" and wonders if the world has learned from the experience, and answers his own question with a chilling "No."

for more information click here

Recall of WWII in Austria

Reading Alfred Novotny's "The Good Soldier" brought back memories of my days living in Austria's economic depression in the 1930's, followed by seven years of Nazism and finally, nearly ten years of Soviet Communist occupation. Mr. Novotny's book drove home a realism that was all around me then. After such a long time we tend to forget the bad experiences of life, which is probably good. And yet, there is a danger in becoming complacent instead of assuring that for all of human kind they must not recur. I wish to thank Mr. Novotny for his brilliant account of what pain war inflicts and how only a few have the strength to survive it. Excellent reading to teach all of us that war is not an alternative.

for more information click here

What my father could never tell me.....

Tough, when you are a boy and your fathers memory of the war was so painful for him that he could never tell you anything about it. If you are a kid of fourteen, all you want to hear is all the wonderful stuff, the heroism, the valiant, the gallant, the comraderie and, yes, the victory....then your dad goes on to another plain and you never really know...

Years later you meet Fred. He becomes your mentor, your friend, in many ways a substitute for the father who passed out of your life so soon....and, yes, he was a soldier, too.

A good one.

You, like so many others, urge him on to write a book about his experience of this part of history which shaped our world today. He does, eventually....with no experience in writing (Thank God). He lets the memory flow, sings his heart, with tears and joy, evokes pitures in your mind which your eyes never held, and connects with you....the energy and the feelings completely spin you into a coccoon in which you feel Freds experience. I has to be this way if someone writes so from the heart and therefore connects so completely and firmly with you...

Read this book. Through its nature it will enrich your life. It will give you a gentle lesson. Its truly a gift of the Universe. Read it and give it to your kids. So they dont have to find someone to ask, like me.

Even if you were never a soldier.

for more information click here

"The Good Soldier"

I have found that reading "general books" on the subject of WWII does get a bit boring, but the personal accounts will draw the reader in and brings to life the good and hardships that one has during a war, any war. Mr. Novotny does this in his book so well you feel you're on the front lines with him.
His style is "right to the point" and he doesn't pull any punches. Bravo Mr. Novotny great work, great book.

Brief Encounter

Alfred Novotny has led a truly extraordinary life, one well worth putting to print. His life before the war, during the war, and after the war could easily have been broken up into three interesting volumes, or made into one very long book. What the reader gets, however, is a long magazine article disguised as a book. Filled with large print and pictures this undersized book falls short because of what it should have been and is not. His battle with a Russian tank is just one of many examples. The encounter is told in a sentence or two, leaving the reader wanting and disappointed. It is not an exaggeration to say that most readers could finish this "book" while waiting at the doctor's or dentist's office. That makes the price a little too high.

for more information click here

reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6

products you might be interested in