Customer Reviews

Through the Valley of the Kwai

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I was privileged to know the author of "Through the Valley of the Kwai", Rev. Ernest Gordon, for many years. Ernest Gordon died January 16, 2002. He has always been and will forever remain my hero. His story, first published in 1962, was republished in the 1980's as "Miracle on the River Kwai" and will enter its third printing February 2002 under yet another title, "To End All Wars". It is a powerful and moving first-hand account of how faith, love, fellowship, and the enduring human spirit transcended the unthinkable horrors and hatred of war and transformed the hearts and lives of men on both sides of the battle line. After recently attending Rev. Gordon's memorial service, we were presented with an unbelievable and sobering gift: a preview screening of a new movie, "To End All Wars", based on Ernest Gordon's book and scheduled for release around August 15, 2002. I would encourage every adult reader to see this powerful, disturbing, and ultimately victorious film. Just weeks before his death Rev. Gordon attended a private screening of the long-anticipated movie along with the movie's producer, Jack Hafer. After the screening, Rev. Gordon slowly approached the anxious producer and with strong emotion in his Scottish brogue proclaimed, "Jack, you caught the heart of it." Like his book, this movie has the power to change you! May the heart of it "catch" you, too.

The book traces the transformation of the author's life and the life of the Japanese POW camp in which he was incarcerated. It is a beautiful book. The Japanese created an environment in which each prisoner lived for himself in a desperate struggle to survive. As a result, life was cheapened, prisoner stole from prisoner and many lost the will to struggle to live. Then, as if from no where, isolated acts of great courage and sacrifice arrested the camp's slide into hell. Men began to ask the question if there was some purpose to life beyond self. Groups formed to discuss the question. From that emerged groups who began serving others. The answer they discovered was that Jesus Christ had suffered much like they were suffering and yet was able to serve others and ultimately die for their sin. The camp was transformed. Men used their talents to serve their fellow prisoners. It is an incredible read.

Buy it!

8/23/00 I just recently bought this book on a quick shopping spree through a used book store. I bought it strictly because of the title and was very surprised when I found out it was about the rebirth of the human spirit through religion. Despite the fact that I am not religious this book was one of the best I have ever read. From the absolute degradation of the British soldiers in a Japanese POW camp in Thailand to their rebirth in human feelings and kindness to each other in a hopeless situation is a great story. The details of the camps and living conditions are vivid. It is very well written and hard to put down. Look at this way: I thought so highly of a 35-year old book that I wanted to write a review about it if it was still available.

The book is primarily about the disintegration and reconstruction of the personal ties between the prisoners in the POW camp that built the Bridge over the River Kwai. An astonishing piece of honest reporting by the author who lived it. It is not about the bridge. The book begins in the early stages of the Pacific part of World War II, with an extrodinary adventure by the author, a Scottish Merchant Seaman, to leave South East Asia before the Japanese caught him. A friend was kind enough to loan me a copy of the book in the late 1970's. Enough already! *grin*. I liked it, you will probably like it too.

A BOOK I FIRST READ NEARLY 40 YEARS AGO, AND RE-READ RECENTLY. IT IS STILL ONE OF THE MOST INSPIRING BOOKS I HAVE EVER READ. I LIVED IN THAILAND WHEN I FIRST READ IT; AND WAS ABLE TO VISIT THE CEMETERY THERE. IT IS SUCH A SHAME THAT A MOVIE WAS MADE, THAT IS STILL SHOWING, THAT IS COMPLETELY INACCURATE. THIS BOOK SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT AND IS A TRIBUTE TO THOSE MEN, WHO IN THE HARDEST POSSIBLE TIMES OF THEIR LIVES, FOUND IT POSSIBLE TO FIND MEANING IN THEIR VERY EXISTENCE BY HELPING OTHERS.

This book is profound and potentially life changing. This book really fleshes out what it means to take the example of Jesus Christ seriously and the ramifications that might have in our "universe". It is an easy and enjoyable book to read -- hard to put down.

This book will move you like few others. It portrays a typical soldier who becomes a loyal follower of Jesus Christ. This is NOT a war story, but a story of the good that is possible within mankind. A must read!

The book--a true story--has incredible principles even though it is not well written. It was hard to put it down. The author showed how creativity could spring forth amidst horrendous cruelty, starvation, and isolation when military prisoners of war forsook their own selfishness and began help others. It not only saved their own lives, but because it gave purpose to their otherwise hopeless situations, an environment was fostered that gave true hope and purpose in their existing situations. TO BE RELEASED AS A MAJOR MOVIE DECEMBER 6TH 2002 IN LA.

I kmew Ernest Gordon when he was the Dean of th4 Chapel at Princeton. This story of how he and friends found faith on the hell of a Japanese concentration and Labor camp is an inspiration to all of us. (Dean Gordon died in 1987)

This book is a wonderful portrait of someone who came to know God through Christ in a time of great suffering. Ernest Gordon's life was changed and then other lives were made better because of his transformed life. Through the Valley of the Kwai is an interesting story certain to hold the attention of the reader, but it is so much more than that. It is a book full of great spiritual insights such as:

"Our experience of life in death had taught us that the way to life leads through death. To see Jesus was to see in him that love which is the very highest form of life, that love which has sacrifice as the logical end of its action. To see this was to see that the man who hoards up life's powers only to use them for selfish purposes has but one end, that of death---separation from God and others. What we hoard, we lose. What we confine, we kill. To hang on to life, to guard it, to preserve it, is to end up by burying it. Each of us must die to the physical life of selfishness, the life controlled by our hates, fears, lusts, and prejudices in order to live in the flesh the life that is of the spirit."

I would highly recommend this book to anyone.