Title: A Long Road to USA Citizenship
Subtitle: An Autobiography
Author: Horst G. Baier
Publisher: XlibrisUS
ISBN: 9781524573430
Pages: 146
Genre: Autobiography
Reviewed by: Arthur Thares
Pacific Book Review
With all of the craziness in the world today it is easy to forget about our rich history. The history that we are allowed is watered down touching briefly on only a few key points. We are quickly losing a generation of storytellers who can tell us not only the events of the past but how they looked, how they felt, and even how they smelled. This book paints a picture of a time that many would call “simpler,” though it was anything but easy.
A Long Road to USA Citizenship follows our storyteller, Horst, through his life as a school-aged boy in rural Germany teeter-tottering between middle class and poverty. Having tasted both lives, Horst chooses to skip high school and learn a trade that proves to help him throughout his life. Only a few years into his life as a tradesman, Horst is drafted to fight in the German military. The war takes him all around Eastern
Europe where he has many hair-raising adventures, one that even lands him in the hospital for a spell.
Most of the book focuses on Horst’s life in the military and the trials and tribulations he faced during WWII. He does go into some detail on life as an immigrant after the war and how he came to reside in the U.S. The end of the book feels fairly abrupt, but it does leave you on a high note feeling happy and hopeful for our storyteller.
It is apparent that Horst is a stellar storytelling. I found myself entirely immersed in even the most superficial parts of Horst’s stories because of his attention to the details of incidents that happened so long ago. I wanted to be so mad at Horst for being a part of the war, but he made it so human and occasionally mentioned in subtle ways that he was fighting for his country and not for the cause.
Reading this book was less like reading a biography or history book and more like listening to your grandpa tell you a story. There is such a warm feel to his story even though it deals with sometimes dry and often heavy subjects. This is not a heart- pounding thriller or a story drenched in sappy love, instead it is a solid story about a man who lived an interesting life and told from a perspective that most English speakers don’t get to experience.
