Book Review: Soldier X

    

1st picture found at: http://www.reviewandreact.com/store/pdetails4013.php
2nd picture found at: http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/133p/133p0
4papers/KFrabottaHitlerYouth046.htm

          Soldier X, by Don Wulffson, is a book of twists and turns, as well as being someone

your not. Erik Brandt is Jugend Youth, which is the youth soldiers in Hitler's army in World

War II. He and his family are Russian, but they immigrated to Germany long ago. He is

sixteen, blond haired and blue eyed. The war is well in effect in 1944 in Nazi Germany, and

the new soldiers are running low, and the recruits are getting younger and younger. Erik gets

put into battle with little training. He got assigned to the Eastern Front fighting back the

approaching Russians. In the heat of his first battle, his company was over run from the

outside and enclosed behind the Russian line. He was wounded, shot in the leg, and went

unconscious. When he woke, he was lying among dead bodies, he heard Russian voices and

realized they were checking bodies to make sure they are dead. He made a decision, a

decision that changed his life. He located a straggling Russian and killed him quietly, then put

 on his uniform. Then, he laid down and started moaning. He was picked up and and brought

to a Russian aid station set up in a school. Since he is Russian he blended in. He remains here

for a while, and even receives a Russian medal for being wounded. While in the hospital, he

becomes involved with one of the nurses, Tamara. As he becomes more and more healed,

there is more and more of a chance for people to find out that he is a Nazi. Although he does

not want to be a Nazi anymore, it doesn't matter. When Erik burned his finger cooking, he

screamed something in German. Tamara heard and knew what he was. Erik didn't expect

for her to understand, but he tried anyway. Tamara loved him no matter who or what he was,

and kept it a secret. Conditions become worse for the town, when they found out that the

Germans are closing in. They are evacuated, but it is to late. The Germans were there, and

everyone got split up. Erik and Tamara were one their own. They set out for allied territory,

and they dreamed of eventually ending up in the United States. Going from place to place,

they stay the nights in generous peoples cabins and abandoned buildings. They find a German

squad and continue with them to Berlin. Disguised, yet again, Erik and Tamara tend to

wounded German soldiers. They soon leave the city, and continue heading Southwest. Hoping

to find American forces soon, they continue on. They enter a town where they conclude there

has been recent fighting. They decide to leave, but before they can, they hear voices. Erik

gasps, and then they are fired on by an American squad. Erik is shot up terribly, but still alive.

A machine gun blast had shattered his left arm; a bullet had entered his open mouth and exited

his left cheek; the heavy caliber bullets had also ricocheted and splintered, and fragments of

stone and steel had hit him in the head and fast; his left eye had also been abraded. Tamara had

had a bullet graze her head and it knocked her out cold. They were transported to an American

Red Cross Hospital in Stasfurt, Germany, where Erik's left arm was amputated. After Erik had

healed enough, he and Tamara left for the U.S., where they live now in Washington. No one

knows that Erik was a Nazi, in fact, they think that he is an American veteran.


            Erik didn't want to be involved with Germany's war, he actually didn't want to be in

Germany at all. He wanted to back in Russian, where he was born. Erik tries to not become

to close to anyone because he knows they are all likely to die, except Tamara, whom he loves

very much. Erik is sixteen for the duration of the book, and is blond haired and blue eyed.

Tamara is fifteen, and has black hair. Tamara is a nurse and enjoys helping people. Both Erik

and Tamara love each other very much.

          The theme of this book is war, and the extreme conditions that people are forced to live

in. War brings people together as well as tears them apart. In the book it describes Erik deserting

the German Army, which happened a lot during the war, and fleeing. Also in the book, Tamara

and Erik both leave every thing and head for America. What people do in war is demented. When

a country is not in war, they are arrested and imprisoned when they kill someone, but when a

country is in war, they promote killing, and want you to join the army.

          I enjoyed this book very much! It was very sad in a lot of parts, but I also found parts

where there was happy and joyful times too. I very much enjoy the history involved with the

plot, as well as the personal stories tied in. I recommend this book to everyone.