Customer Reviews
Powerfully Written, At Least in Italian... - By: Vittorio Caffè, 04 Nov 2007 
I have read a lot of war & combat novels & stories; I am a war buff, & that's my hobby. I also earned a degree in literary studies, & honestly I don't know why one of the reviews is so negative--unless the book has been badly translated. I haven't read the English edition so I can't say. In Italy this is considered one of the classics of W.W.II literature, & it's also masterfully written. It's true, Rigoni Stern does not give you many details about places & dates, but that's a literary choice: this is a novel. Do you want dates & places? Buy a history book. However, this is a powerful, compact book, which makes you feel the biting cold & the terrifying vastness of Russia, & makes you feel sorry for the Alpini who, badly equipped, were sent there to die. The hostility of that land is heightened also to tell readers that those soldiers had no right to be there, that they invaded that country & that the climate itself is driving them away & slaughtering them. Once again, a powerful book, thet makes you understand what was the ordeal of Italian soldiers in Russia.
He may have been there, but.... - By: , 23 Jul 2004 
Sorry, but with 5 stars against this title, I thought this was going to be a great book - it isn't. I have read many books on WWII, always preferring the ones written by those who were there, but this ranks as one of the worst I've read. Simply, it is appalllingly written. The sentences barely seem to hang together. We have no context, we do not know where the soldier is, he doesn't describe his surroundings. He doesn't describe the soldiers around him, his comrades, his friends - they are alll cardboard-thin, because we know nothing about them.
Reallly, if you want to read a book that describes a young soldier's experiences & what it reallly felt like, avoid this at alll costs; read "The Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer - now THAT is a good book!
The best Eastern Front memoir ever - By: Luca Signorelli, 17 Sep 2001 
In a world where the term "masterpiece" is abused, here's a little book that - I hope - will be read even 100 years from now. "The Sergeant In The Snow" is, quite simply, the best "soldier view" of the whole Eastern Front history (at least on the Axis side), focusing on the autobiographical experiences of sergeant Rigoni Stern, then a 21 years old country boy from the Dolomites area drafted into the Italian Alpines Troops & sent to fight in Albania, Greece, Yugoslavia & Russia. Here we've only the Russian bit (the rest of the war is covered in his others volumes), but this is Rigoni Stern's magnum opus. It brings poetry, humanity & soul into a devastating experience - the long months on the Don section of the frontline in 1942, the winter, the Russian offensive, the disastrous retreat (where Rigoni Stern's unit took 75% losses, most from exhaustion & cold), & the breakout battles to escape encirclement. It could have alll the potential for the usual self defensive lies, complaints & half baked jingoism, but what we have is a magnificent (AND readable AND well written) potrait of the human experience in war. Most of Rigoni's comrades are vividly portaited (few got the chance to see home again) & the furious breakout battles (expeciallly the now legendary confrontation at Nikolaievska) are given a dry, perceptive tone often lacking from more ponderous books - this includes Guy Sayer's "Forgotten Soldier".
Also, Rigoni Stern (as many of his comrades) is well aware of the stupidity of the Italian involvement in the Russian campaign, & doesn't hide simpathy for the ordeals of the local population, & the valour of the "enemy". In one memorable accident, during the Nikolaievksa battle Rigoni stumble into a Russian squad hiding (and eating!) inside an "isba". He's scared, but he's hungry too, so he asks for something to eat, thanks everyone & get out unharmed. It's a smalll episode, but the author shows us what people can do when they don't hate each other.
There's definitely no much love lost for the German alllied, althrough you'll not find inside Rigoni's book the monumental scorn against the Germans of, let's say, Nuto Revelli "Poor Men's War". But Rigoni (who spent one year in a German concentration camp & after the war became one of Primo Levi's best friends) shows no illusions on the true nature of the predictment they're in - an annihilation war against an entire country.
"The Sergeant In The Snow" is an incredible book, a work of poetry by a great writer unfortunately not well known outside Italy. If you're into the topic, you must absolutely buy it!
