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Douglas Fisher, The Ottawa Sun The third jewel [of a book] will be on a near shelf to me until the end. Why? In slight part it is simply because its author, a retired architect, is one of the most buoyant and literate emigrees from Europe I’ve met. But it is more because this is a heartening, cheerful, often witty account of survival in Soviet penal work camps and an eventual, long, twisting journey to the shores of the Caspian Sea, then across to Iran and service in the Polish division in the Mediterranean theatre. Without Vodka: Wartime Adventures in Russia, by Aleksander Topolski is a new paperback enlivened by the author’s good ink sketches.... It is the most absorbing of all the "now it can be told books" I’ve read by a non-Russian survivor of enslavement in the USSR. It contrasts well with The Long Walk, written by a former Polish army officer, Slavomir Rawicz. [That] is an epic account of the walk by six prisoners at Yakutsk, Siberia, 4,000 miles to freedom in British India. But where the Rawicz story is dour, the Topolski story is vivid, often comic, and an entertaining primer on enforced multiculturalism. |
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Paul Gessell, The Ottawa Citizen ...Without Vodka is amazingly cheerful and upbeat despite the meticulously detailed death and destruction that accompanied Topolski's descent into the hell of the Soviet prison system.... The book is not irreverent. It is not Hogan’s Heroes. And it does not trivialize the pain suffered by both the prisoners and civilians of wartime Russia. But it does seem to be written with a total absence of bitterness and anger and by a man who has made peace with the world. "I never considered my story as a tragic story," says Topolski.... Topolski seems to like remembering. He has already almost finished a sequel to Without Vodka. It’s to be called Without a Roof and deals with his experiences in the Polish army in the Mideast and Italy. |
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Andrew Vowles, The Hamilton Spectator Near the end of this Second World War memoir, the author’s newly formed Polish regiment encounters a trainload of Soviet soldiers returning from the front. The emaciated and bloodied Soviets are dumbfounded at the Poles’ fighting trim. "A Polish Army dressed like staff officers, well fed. The devil take it! They always lie to us! The sons of bitches. But it’s not for our brains to ponder these things. Besides, it’s dangerous. Without Vodka you can’t figure it out." Knowing what state Aleksander Topolski and his comrades had been in mere months earlier--and indeed, what dire straits they’re in during most of this engrossing book--readers will give their heads an ironic shake at the Soviets’ sense of bewilderment. Topolski’s memoir provides an unaffected, clear-eyed view of a life gone topsy-turvy during the first three years of the Second World War. By turns, his remembrances are wrenching, horrifying, surreal, even funny. "Funny" is a rather unlikely word to describe a prisoner’s memoir, but then at times it must have seemed to the teenaged Topolski that a sense of humour was the only cord to sanity. During yet another of the interminable train rides ferrying him and his fellow inmates between prisons, one prisoner wonders where they managed to find a particular guard. "‘That,’ said the cavalryman, ‘is what you get when two tractors mate.’" ....Topolski displays amazing powers of recall in this memoir. Six decades melt away as he describes characters, events, his surroundings. He relied mostly on his memory, although he investigated the archives of the Sikorski Museum in London and checked facts and dates with fellow travellers. Those companions come to life as if he were encountering them afresh: Roman, the classical scholar; Doctors Weisglass and Epstein in One Star Sing Sing; Tadzio, who shared tales of Ovid and taught him the Greek alphabet. They lean on one another for survival against hunger, deprivation and the cruelty or indifference of their keepers.... Aside from the frequent references to starvation--his own and others’-- he tells the story dispassionately, as if he were a slightly ironic observer of this world gone mad. Perhaps this is a coping mechanism or the distancing effect of the passage of years. In any event, it turns out to be a powerful way to let the story tell itself.... Topolski’s book has been called a Polish Angela’s Ashes. Frank McCourt has since followed up his bestseller with a second instalment, ‘Tis. Topolski ends his memoir with mention of his further adventures until the war’s end. If he can sustain the sure footing he displays in this volume, Without Vodka II would be worth the read. |
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James Stewart, Montreal Gazette ....Topolski describes those tumultuous years in vivid and engaging prose without self-pity or rancour. He seems to have forgotten nothing, providing minute descriptions of cells, food (when there was any), latrines, guards, faces and characters. Such total recall might be suspect if the narrative didn't ring so true on almost every page. |
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Tabaret Magazine, University of Ottawa Aleksander Topolski, BA 94, recently launched the American edition of his memoirs, Without Vodka: Adventures in Wartime Russia. His vivid descriptions of Soviet prisoners, train travellers and kolkhoz workers, his eye for their comic doings and his lack of bitterness have already drawn rave reviews for the Canadian edition. |
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Patricia Wild, Peacework (Magazine of the American Friends Service Committee) Topolski's memory is phenomenal. This memoir--written in the voice of a curious and eager young man--comes alive with the author's detailed descriptions of fellow prisoners, prison cells, train rides from one prison to the next, what he was given to wear, but, above all, what he was--or wasn't--given to eat. "What I may have failed to convey in this book," Topolski writes in the preface, "is the feeling of hunger that for three years was the basso continuo of my existence. . . To make the reader aware of this, I wanted to write 'I AM HUNGRY' at the top of every page." Surprisingly, Without Vodka is upbeat and charming; at times, this extraordinary memoir is even funny. See more at www.afsc.org/pwork/0107/010715a.htm |
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Will McClelland, The News (Wakefield, QC) [Quoting from an interview with Topolski] "They (the war experiences) increased my faith. It helps to believe in something that cannot be destroyed by physical means... you must find something no person can demolish (if you hope to survive)." As a young soldier and prisoner thrust into the largest war the world has ever seen, Topolski clung to an optimistic view throughout and has not left it since. "I never thought of the possibility of death, or failure, or not making it.... People always ask me if I have nightmares--never. I have no bitterness to anybody. I consider myself fortunate.".... Having nearly starved to death during those unspeakable months in Siberia, Topolski’s past does not remain solely in the recesses of his memory, but surfaces in small ways in his present life. "Years after [the war], even when I came to Canada, and my wife would not be in the house, I was always storing food. Things of lard and sugar, rice and so on. Plenty of it...just in case." Despite this instinctual habit which Topolski licked a few years ago, little can now frighten the prison camp survivor turned author. "I don’t worry about the future because I say ‘What can happen? --I’ve been through it.’ We (prisoners) were living on bread and a smidgeon of soup a day." |
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Esprit de Corps Magazine It was the morning of 24 August 1939, and 16 year-old Aleksander Topolski was being called up for military service. In eight days his native Poland would be invaded by the Germans. When he entered his mother’s bedroom that morning she stared at him and gasped, "Holy Mother of God! They are taking my Child." Seldom has the start of a wartime experience been told with such simplicity and powerful imagery, qualities which blend with a fine touch of humour and compassion as the author gives us a personal glimpse of a nation being overrun.... Most of the book deals with the fight for survival in Russian camps and brings a highly personal dimension to the tragedy which has been overshadowed by details of the Holocaust or ignored by most North Americans. |
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Andrzej Guryn, Gazeta Magazyn, Montreal ". . . splendid. . . . told with flair and humour. . . . Topolski’s narration flows fast, and the characters, happenings, and situations are presented so vividly that the reader sees them as if they were alive." |
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Douglas Fisher, Legion Magazine The storyline of this partial autobiography begins with the author recalling his time as a student growing up in a middle-class family in a town in eastern Poland where the population was as much Ukrainian and Jewish as it was Polish. He tells us of some of the opportunities he looked forward to until the Germans invaded Poland in the summer of 1939..... Without doubt, Topolski's high spirits and optimism kept him going.... [while] he was bumped around jails and camps in western Russia..... In clear racy English, Topolski has recaptured the vocabulary and aspirations of those youthful years with a large, lively cast of characters and dramatic episodes....Neither the action nor the wit slackens....The result is a book to rivet readers.... I think Topolski's first book [Without Vodka] also has potential as a movie because so many scenes in it are well-sketched and his dialogue and episodes are earthy and believable. I believe he is a more accomplished writer than the author of The Long Walk although his odyssey was neither as long nor quite as brutal. |
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Joe Golombek, Am-Pol Eagle The strength of the book is the author's strong narrative and fairness in reporting what he saw.... As a historian and teacher I appreciate his honesty.... warmth and humor. |
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Other Readers Comment: "A true life adventure story that reads like a novel." - Ernie Mahoney, Wakefield ". . . an outstanding achievement. . . . It records . . . how real life goes on in the midst of fear and despair. . . . making those experiences. . . funny, human and warm." - Peter Roberts, former Canadian Ambassador to the Soviet Union "I’m giving it to my kids to read because I want them to know what it was like." - Kaja Wilczynski, London, survivor of forced resettlement in the USSR. "Aleksander Topolski’s account . . . demonstrates an amazing recall of persons and events. . . . A major contribution to the scarce literature of Soviet prison experiences." - Brian Land, Professor Emeritus and former Dean, Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto. "Again I encourage you to get your autobiography into print--it’s such an interesting and hitherto neglected slice of the area’s history and so fascinatingly written. " - Jennifer Balfour, Central Asia correspondent for The Guardian. "Your superb recollections of people and events may strike some readers as mere inventions. I know that they are not. I happen to know some people you refer to, and they are as you say they are. Some extraordinary events you describe were actually quite ordinary in Soviet life. My own experience was quite similar. . . . your love of humanity permeates the whole book." - Prof. Tadeusz Grygier, former prisoner then representative of the Polish Government-in-Exile to Komi Republic, the main island of the "Gulag Archipelago". "Those who have read it have all praised the freshness of the detail, and the extremely graphic descriptions. . . . " - Martin Pick, Literary Consultant, London. "Without Vodka has what it takes to be a bestseller - a good narrative plus historical and literary value. Open it at any page and you want to keep reading. " - Michael Becker, Leitrim ". . . . a superb book. I confess that I had a certain trepidation in starting a book about life as an adolescent Polish prisoner of war in the Soviet Union [but] I could not put it down. It will remain with me long after I have forgotten dozens of other books which I have read in recent years." - Dwight W. Fulford, former Ambassador, Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs "First class!" - Andrzej M, Garlicki, National President, Canadian Polish Congress ". . . a powerful account. . . . a testament to great human courage and resilience." - Prof. Michael Gnarowski, Department of English, Carleton University "What makes this tale different, what compels the reader from start to finish, is the voice of such freshness, such alert and hopeful spirit, that this "three year odyssey through the land of Red Misery" becomes a tale, an adventure, of humour and compassion, mischief and amazement, faith and the mysterious, miraculous workings of luck. . . .We are there in what feels like the total recall of yesterday, not half a century ago. It is a masterful achievement, a saga that leaves one with a smile in the midst of tears." - Catherine Joyce, Chelsea author "As an old Siberian lag, I appreciate a 100 per cent authentic story [like Without Vodka.]" - Zbyszek Mankowski, Nottingham "Dungeons and dragons aside, it sounds as if you had a whale of a time in prison!" - Printer’s assistant who dipped into part of Without Vodka. |
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