Customer Reviews

Legionnaire: Five Years in the French Foreign Legion

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
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Murray is obviously a very intelligent man with a good memory and tells an interesting story. The Legion of his day was probably not as brutal as the U.S. Marine Corps Boot Camp of the 1950's (I know) but the difference was that the Legion was always in Boot Camp mode whereas the Marines spent 3 months in that hell and then lived like normal human beings. I also don't think the Marines could have matched the Legion's constant marching. My favorite Legion book is Memoirs of the Foreign Legion by Maurice Magnus. A much shorter book that portrays the Legion as it was 45 years earlier than Murray's Legion, it is not as detailed but more colorful.

This book is a great read about a man who decided to throw caution to the wind and join the French Foreign Legion and became a legend. The book is very well written, and a classic in the limited field of first person legion accounts. It remains an excellent personal account of the war in Algeria as well. It also does a fine job of explaining how the legion adapted and changed after the war in Africa and Indochina.

In a previous review of another book I mentioned comrades as priceless and something you only find when men are pushed to their limits. Murray proves my point repeatedly. If you've ever served, then you'll understand, ultimately you fight for the man standing next to you. He captures this brilliantly.

There is some excellent information about combat mind-set, marksmanship and discipline found within these pages as well. I really began to admire how hardened these men were and to watch them develop into razor's edge. In the end, Murray had become a warrior.

Ultimately, it's a real life adventure story. Much like Kon Tiki, only vastly more deadly and with lots of wine, whiskey and women. Either way, few men have the balls to take on something like this.

This is a well written story of Simon Murray's life during the five years from 1960-1964. The good, the bad, the cruel and the emotional parts are clearly presented. It certainly strips away any romantic notions one might have about life in the Legion. Very good reading.

Simon Murray's "Legionnaire" is a fascinating read for those interested in military history and first-hand adventure accounts, not just those with an interest in the famed French Foreign Legion. (This book should probably not be read by those looking for a guide to the Legion today, unless it is to get some historical perspective on this force.) Murray was a young upperclass Briton in 1960, just out of "public school" and looking to prove himself. There is some suggestion that (not surprisingly in the downsized British military of post-Empire days) Murray was unsuccessful at getting an entree into the British Army as an officer. Murray instead joined the French Foreign Legion, and the book is a detailed account of the 1960 Legion--just as France was losing its overseas empire--through the eyes of a thoughtful, intelligent, red-blooded young British man from the upper crust. The book does a good job at puncturing some of the mythology of the Legion (for example, by detailing the day-to-day tedium of much of the training) while bolstering it in other areas (the legendarily tough discipline, the strong bonds of international comradeship). Some combat scenes fighting the Arabs (interesting to those who have followed the fight against the insurgency in Iraq), but the book was most interesting to me as (1) an honest view into an organization of myth and legend; and (2) a psychological study of a young man coming of age through military training -- he absorbs many of the values of the Legion but rejects others, and always keeps his inner "voice." This is a true classic.

This is a very fascinating book about the French Foreign Legion. Murray joined in 1960, when the Foreign Legion was fighting for its life in Algeria. This tells the brutal life that this recruits go through, and the training methods. No wonder so many become alcholics and brutes. However, they are tough soldiers able to endure what other soldiers cannot. I am not sure if we pit the U.S. Marines against the Foreign Legion, whether the Marines would be able to endure.

Murray served in Algeria, and this story shows the pull out and independence of Algeria after the struggle. The French settlers leave, and Algeria becomes a backwater Third World nation with plenty of oil. Along the way, Murray meets up with daughters of these French settlers and experiences love.

This is a nice interesting story about the Foreign Legion. Murray puts in perspective the suffering recruits go through to join this elite unit.

A great read - Anyone who has been in an active armed service will relate to the adventure. It is a book that I wouldrecomend to any young person starting out - a book that you can't put down and when you are finished reading it you will wish you were 21 again just to go in search of a similar adventure.

This is modern history - written in away that it is suitable for school reading.

When is the next Simon Murray adventure coming to print.

I couldn't put the book down. Makes you realize how soft most of our lives really are and helps you appreciate your life. I recommend this book to everyone, especially those who like to whine and complain.

The escapades of the French Foreign Legion have diminished for generations have passed having never read Gunga Din or related to the tales of Rudyard Kipling. Neither the British armys or the French Foreign Legion interests the reader today. Such was not the case years ago. The middle east was seen as a place of mystery and intrigue.

And as for the FFL, perhaps no other military group has consisted of so many diverse people who essentially joined this outfit simply for the purpose of escaping life. For many, the FFL was a means for leaving society.

Simon Murray has written a most interesting narrative about these people and the situations he faced and endured while serving a five year term in the legion. For those unfamiliar with the FFL, this army served internationally, where ever French colonies exisited.

Murray relates the harsh and brutal life within the legion, including the impersonality and barbarous treatment at the hands of NCOs and officers. One interesting benefit of reading this book is Murray's description of the treatment Arabs received at the hands of the French...certainly a contribution to the middle east attitudes today toward western civilization.

All in all, his book helps explain the lonelyness and ironic togetherness men isolated from society gain from one another. This is an interesting book for the military officiando.

I greatly enjoyed Legionnaire, though it does bog down in places, it is a great telling of life in the Legion. The author is a very intelligent and educated man and it shows in his writing. The entire book is a collection from his extensive diaries during his time in the Legion.

The story is a classic Foreign Legion story of a young educated British boy seeking adventure and excitement. What he finds is that the Legion is not what he expected from reading Beau Geste and he is thrust into one of the most brutal and psychologically exhausting experience of his life. But you can see the transformation from the boy who entered the Legion to the hardened and weathered man who left it five years later.

Though the story might seem somewhat cliche the art is in the telling and the author does a magnificent job, a great read and well worth the time spent.

While this book is now dated it does not detract from the stark reality of life as as legionaire. Simon takes us through his service life with a no holds barred acount. I enjoyed the read.