Greg Archer's memoir has been touted as the Polish version of "Eat, Pray, Love" and I can kinda see that. Archer's memoir is an exploration of his family's tragic past, starting with the deportation of his family from Poland to a slave labor camp, to homelessness, death and despair, salvation in Africa and finally a journey to America. Archer brings to life one of the most under-reported atrocities of the last century, Stalin's horrid treatment and murder of millions of Poles. It's really eye opening. As a history student who's traveled to Russia, I thought about how glossed over this MAJOR event has always been. Stalin was responsible for more deaths than Hitler could ever begin to take credit for, but Stalin didn't ever seem to catch nearly as bad a rap. Archer's story starts in California and over several years finally end in Poland finding the Church his family attended. Greg Archer is witty but I felt like half of his memoir he was poking fun of himself or talking about how awesome all his celebrity encounters were (he was an entertainment journalist). It was a little distracting, but not awful by any means. I thought he did great research and really empathized with his family's plight. An eye opening read and great memoir.
I received this book for free from the publisher in return for my honest, unbiased opinion.
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