Customer Reviews
Make this your next read an absolute must!!!!!!!! - By: Peter A. Colwill, 15 Sep 2008 
For those of you who have made a list of 100 things to do before you die. Whatever number you are now at make the next one this book. I garantee the list will change from the moment this book is finished. You will realise the stupidity of the list you have devised & come to an understanding that life is never as bad as it might seem.
To those of you that have no understanding of war, how mean man can get to other human beings read this book.
To anyone who at this moment is having a family feud & sees no end to hatred read this book.
To anyone that wants to understand the meaning of suffering & foregiveness read this book.
To anyone that has never shed a tear please read this book.
The Railway Man/ Authur Eric Lomax - By: Lf Weller, 06 Aug 2008 Without doubt the finest book I've ever read. Anybody who can read this without tear staining the pages has no soul or emotions.
It starts slowly showing a boy who is awkward because he doesn't share the normal interests of youth but it develops through his age experience & the horrors he endures to provide a man of intense intelligence compassion & the ultimate forgiveness to provide us all with a desire to do the best we can, & yes I'm crying as I write this review. I've just ordered a new copy as my other one is very dog eared.
OUTSTANDING! - By: CauseOfCollapse, 31 Jan 2008 I have never read a book so fastin all my life! A real 'page-turner', a riveting story. Its incredible that anyone could survive the experiences describedin this book. I think that this book is crying out to be made into a film. It has everything that would make a truly great film :- a time of turmoil, an exotic location, a mild-mannered character drawn into a horrifying set of circumstances & surviving against staggering odds, humanity displayed at its best & at its worst, the backdrop of a world war, & ultimate reconciliation & forgiveness - the solution of an inner torment that could be solvedin no other way.
I hope to see this on the big-screen one day.
An honest and unique personal testimony - By: Siriam, 22 Dec 2007 
The reason this book makes such an impact is that while numerous other books of WWII experiences & POW & torture on the Burma Railway have been written since that conflict ended, this has two additional & unique aspects that mark it out.
The first is of the writer having undergone treatment at the Medical Foundation (a charity that usually deals with torture victims of harsh political regimesin peacetime) as their first ex-serviceman with battle stressin 1988, 43 years after the war had ended!
The second is that he subsequently met with one of the Japanese soldiers who had participatedin the torture sessions he had suffered, by a series of opportune circumstances & as part of his above recovery programme. It is a fact that while that Japanese soldier's role was solely as translator & not physical torturer, for the writer the focus of that person's role as he suffered given the questioning he underwent had led to him reserving most hatred for himin his memories of events.The evidence learnt that the individual had devoted himself since the end of the War to charitable works around the eventsin Asia had made little impact till they met.
By the end the reconciliation & forgiveness which the author had denied as possible up to that point occur since as he accepts the hating has to stop.
A remarkable personal testimony though I have to admit I found it owes as much to the honest & simple factual writing style including the many admissions of personal mistakes & naivete on events both pre & post the war as well as the errors that led to his suffering the fate he didin Asia after capture by the Japanese.
poignant for today - By: mathwonk, 19 Oct 2007 I was extremely moved by this book when i read it a few years ago & gave it to my fatherin law, a second world war veteran. it was especially memorable for introducing me, second hand, to the torture now known as water boarding & the fact that experiencing this torture had an almost lifelong impact on the author.
today i read that the bush administration's nominee for attorney general , mr. mukasey, refused to state whether he thought waterboarding a form of torture or not. i recommend he read this account, unless he chooses to undergo the procedure firsthand. now under the bush regime we have truly become the people we hated & demonized.
