Fear No Evil | 
| Author: Natan Sharansky
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Category: Book
List Price: $19.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 150277
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 464
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 1891620029
Dewey Decimal Number: 323.092
EAN: 9781891620027
ASIN: 1891620029
Publication Date: November 26, 1998
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Condition: SOFTCOVER, CLEAN CRISP COPY
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Product Description
Temperamentally and intellectually, Natan Sharansky is a man very much like many of us—which makes this account of his arrest on political grounds, his trial, and ten years' imprisonment in the Orwellian universe of the Soviet gulag particularly vivid and resonant.
Since Fear No Evil was originally published in 1988, the Soviet government that imprisoned Sharansky has collapsed. Sharansky has become an important national leader in Israel—and serves as Israel's diplomatic liaison to the former Soviet Union! New York Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief Serge Schmemann reflects on those monumental events, and on Sharansky's extraordinary life in the decades since his arrest, in a new introduction to this edition. But the truths Sharansky learned in his jail cell and sets forth in this book have timeless importance so long as rulers anywhere on earth still supress their own peoples. For anyone with an interest in human rights—and anyone with an appreciation for the resilience of the human spirit—he illuminates the weapons with which the powerless can humble the powerful: physical courage, an untiring sense of humor, a bountiful imagination, and the conviction that "Nothing they do can humiliate me. I alone can humiliate myself."
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
Authentic August 7, 2008
Having met the esteemed Sharanksy and heard him speak many times, this book, which he autographed for me before a speech last year, is priceless. The tales inside, as well as the lessons, are incredibly moving, angering and inspiring.
I recommend this book to all, especially American Jews who should read this man's story to understand what people of our religion have gone through, especially in Europe -- and how lucky we are to live in a peaceful, tolerant and fair place like these United States...where, like ALL minorities, we are treated better than anywhere else we've dispersed during our near 5800 year religious history.
Ignoring this book is why people don't understand history and evil: be that Nazism, Communism, Islamo-fascism or the dangerous left wing media who appeases these animals here and abroad.
A testament of hope and of freedom of the human spirit July 23, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
In this classic, in the tradition of The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956, Prisoner of Zion, Natan Sharansky, one of the greatest Jewish heroes of our time, tells of his nine years in Soviet prisons and gulags, because of his desire to live in the ancient homeland of the Jewish people.
Sharansky was first denied an exit visa to Israel in 1973. Seperated from his wife, Avital, a day after thewir marriage, in 1974, Sharansky fought for the rights of Jews in the Soviet Union as well as the rights of other persecuted minorities such as Pentecostals, Catholics, Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars and ethnic Germans, which disproves the repulsive charge by anti-Semites that Zionists only care about their own people.
He worked as a translator for Soviet dissident and human rights champion Andrei Sakharov, and his spokesman.
Sakharov never stopped fighting for Sharanky's freedom, for human rights and for the Jews of the Soviet Empire.
Sharanky describes his life in the preface as a Jews growing up in Russia, and his mental liberation from Soviet thought slavery, by his discovery of his Judaism and Zionism. He then details his 1977 arrest, and his nine years of brutal incarceration.
He never bowed to his captors and refused to have anything to do with the perfidious KGB.
A variety of mental and physical tortures were used to try to break Sharansky, but he never flinched.
Always given courage by the word of the G-D of Israel, and particularly guided by Psalm 23:
"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil
For though art with me..."
Indeed he did not fear the evil of the Soviet tyranny.
His wife Avital tirelessly fought for his release as his cause became known in the free world, and fought for by all freedom-loving people.
The book ends with Sharansky's release in 1986 and his aliyah to Israel, where he was reunited with his wife.
The book is a testament to the evils of a one party tyranny.
It is a testament to the eternal endurability of the Jewish people, and their unbreakable bond wit the Land of Israel.
Unltimately it is a testament of hope and of freedom of the human spirit.
Today the same Communist ideology that persecuted Sharansky is waging a jihad of intellectual terrorism against Israel and her people.
But the courage of people like Sharansky and the people of Israel has shown that Israel can and will prevail.
A must read for any mature adult February 8, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Natan is a hero to the human race. He is wise beyond his years and his wife really proved what true love is. No wonder our Oresident sticks to his convictions. We should all be like Natan
David vs. Goliath August 27, 2005
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
"[Saul] put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on [David's]head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around... "I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached [Goliath]".
So begins the story of the famous battle between the future King David of Israel and the giant Phillistine during Biblical times. In Natan Shcharansky's "Fear No Evil" (the title taken from one of David's own psalms), the author is less equipped even than young David in battling the ubiquitous and evil KGB, which maintains an illegal presence in the prisons he's held in (again, illegally), accused of spying for western countries. But because of decisions he makes early in his arrest, he is the victor in the struggle waged over his soul by men who would like him to acknowledge he is wrong, who would like him to implicate others in his "crimes" in order for favors from them, or who would simply like him to stop being the delightful fly in the prison ointment he is.
Shcharansky's only weapons during his trial and during his following prison term, consist of his personal integrity, which remains unsullied; his faith and trust in his family and friends; and a tiny book of psalms that he will spare nothing in reminding prison officials he is entitled to. He sometimes has to wage a hunger strike for these things, but always wins. It is true that his wife, who managed to reach Jerusalem before Shcharansky's arrest, is on a worldwide campaign for his release, resulting in no less than two sitting US presidents mentioning him by name in speeches heard by Soviet officials as a political prisoner, as well as global support, but Shcharansky does not learn this until later, and so believes he is virtually alone in the fight.
This gritty autobiography is a lovely example of human survival, and how one can keep his humanity in a horrific place. Shcharansky's relationships with his fellow "zeks" (prisoners) is especially touching, and we're able to get a glimpse of how even the guards in the system have surrendered their souls in this "police state".
A great read for anyone questioning how to survive while it seems suffering and injustice are towering overhead. Very inspiring.
A poignant if dry memoir April 21, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Having met Sharansky in Israel (Birthright alumni!), and having had a long time interest in the Soviet Jewry dissident movement - which allowed my own (Jewish) family to emigrate from the Soviet Union in '91 - I had little doubt as to the outcome of Sharansky's imprisonment. As someone who has read a number of books on similar subjects - in particular the Alexander Solzenytsin "Archipelag Gulag" series - I was a bit dissapointed with "Fear no Evil". (Nevermind that Solzenytsin is widely believed to be an anti-semite; I'm speaking of the literary aspect only.)
In contrast to Solzenytsin's breathtakingly vivid literary style and powerful analysis of the core of the Soviet regime and it's criminal code, Sharansky's book read rather like an eagle's eye view of a convoluted social and political order. "Fear no Evil" reads instead like a game of mental swordsmanship, with a self-inflicted narrow focus quite removed from breadth and depth of a much needed analysis on the Soviet system as a whole.
However, Sharansky does not proclaim himself to be a literary guru. This book is a poignant (if dry) portrayal of one man's fight for freedom - both for himself and 2 million of his people. The uncompromising stance taken by the author with the Soviet regime throughout his imprisonment - his life, family and future hanging in the balance - is awe-inspiring in its simplicity and effectiveness.
It has become a cliche in our time that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter". Yet the Sharanskys of the world have proven that one need not be a terrorist to be a freedom fighter. Where are such men today?
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