It’s a story as fascinating as it is undersung ... Riveting ... English’s book is a reminder of what’s lost when a government no longer believes in the power of its own ideals.
The book is gripping, but it doesn’t quite deliver on its subtitled promise to 'win the Cold War with forbidden literature.' The story English has researched and put together focuses almost entirely on Poland’s fight for freedom from the USSR ... What this book does incredibly well is document an oral history of Polish resistance that has, until now, only been told in bits and pieces ... This literary history is a prescient one.
The title of Mr. English’s book is somewhat misleading for two reasons. First, it deals entirely with Poland, whereas the CIA book and broadcast projects reached the entire Soviet bloc. Second, the main story he tells concerns not the CIA but a group of plucky and shrewd Poles who devised endless forms of book-smuggling ... Mr. English shrewdly observes that Poland was better prepared for life after communism ... Occasionally, Mr. English chooses his words carelessly.
A real pleasure to read – a finely written page-turner full of well-researched stories of smuggling, intrigue and survival. It would make an exceptionally good series for television, and it provides a powerful reminder of the extraordinary events of Poland’s struggle for freedom. Suitably for such a literate nation, books played their part in it, and Minden got the result he wanted.
Vivid and moving ... Gripping ... Oddly, the one thing missing from English’s account is the books themselves: we never discover which titles all these people were reading, or what they made of them.
Breezy ... Although this wasn’t the 'best kept secret of the Cold War', as his subtitle claims, English turns it into a vivid and moving story. He is terrific at evoking the atmosphere of Poland in the 1970s and 1980s ... Given how atmospheric all this Polish material is...your heart slightly sinks whenever he cuts to the American side of the story ...
But the Polish stuff is so gripping it 4hardly matters.
Shaped by his experience as a journalist, English's straightforward, no-holds-barred reportage-style narrative tells a complex story that has many moving pieces and opinionated characters. He does so in a way that evokes a range of emotions from readers while exposing a hidden history of both resistance and even international political interference ... In The CIA Book Club , English examines the risks taken Solidarity Minister for Smuggling Mirosław Chojecki, book distributor and smuggler Marian Kaleta, journalist Ewa Kulik, and many others in a vast, dispersed network that considered the printing press and access to information as much a weapon as any tank could be in a war zone. Poland was by far the most successful arena for smuggling and covert printing operations, and this was in large part due to the people in the country who were committed to preserving its intellectual freedom under threats of violence, brutality, and death. English celebrates the work of everyday people choosing to resist, without romanticizing the very real dangers they faced in making those choices ... The CIA Book Club is a gripping lesson in long-term resistance and the resilience of the human spirit.
English lays out the complexity of this massive distribution network—from CIA funding to acquiring writings, sourcing printers and supplies, and assembling staff to carry out the mission—all undertaken in great secrecy and at huge personal risk. Many other factors were at work in pulling down the Iron Curtain, as English makes clear here, but also clear is the CIA’s unrecognized success in advocating for democracy and the rule of law against overwhelming odds.
