WAR could not destroy Nicholas’s capacity to LOVE, to find kindness and even humor amidst the brutal chaos.
Noam Chomsky, Professor emeritus, M.I.T. ~
The book is gripping, at every level. A really fine piece of work with very valuable insights into history and life.
Aviva Chomsky, Professor of History, Salem State College ~
I loved it!! It’s a really unique story, but one that engages with so many of the things we teach in history classes. And it’s very well told.
Greg King, writer ~
Warm, human and full of both the genuine decency of its author, which shines through every page, and the horror of the carnage he so movingly describes. Here you have a story of a very unusual life … and the terrible price paid by ordinary people swept up in war.”
Prof. William Timpson, Colorado State University ~
Terrific!! It is a real “page turner.” Nicholas has great skill at telling stories and pulling readers deeper into the story.
Gregory Shkolnik, Professor of History, retired, formerly of Georgia, USSR ~
How amazingly it comes together in the book of M.J.Nicholas: his remarkable life and talent. There is so much strength and boldness of truth, love and kindness in his book. Thank you very much, Nicholas. P.S. I’m waiting to read Part Two and Part Three of your trilogy.
Irina Tchaikovskaya, PhD, Teacher of Slavic Literature ~
(From an article published in Russian in Neva Magazine, No. 8, 2010)
The American ‘youngster’ [of this book], Nicholas, with his fantastic life, is not a figment of literary imagination. I have met the adult Nicholas. I read his articles about his past published in Russian-language periodicals which describe the basic facts but don’t come even close to his novel. I saw his real war diary, written in English, those thin, palm-sized papers covered with fine letters. This book opened my eyes to the author’s unique personality and fate. Nicholas’ remarkable story-telling talent involves the reader into the intricate turns of his fate, and does so engagingly and factually.
Prof. Mark Solomon, author of The Cry Was Unity ~
M.J. Nicholas’ “Love and War” is a magnificent memoir of one young man’s participation in the Soviet Red Army and its epic battles of World War II. That young man happened to be an American whose family came to the Soviet Union in the 1930s when his father answered the Soviets’ call for skilled steel workers. Young Nicholas, craving to fight fascism, was swept up in the some of the most titanic battles of the war. He was a witness to unspeakable carnage, but also responded to the complex human condition of experiencing both the utmost cruelty of war as well as the blossoming of youthful love.
Throughout the Memoir, Nicholas speaks with an assured, authentic voice — a voice that is uniquely his own; a voice that conveys the contradictory currents of love and war with assurance and persuasiveness. The memoir is also infused with profound political honesty. Nicholas does not shrink from the flaws of the Soviet system and the toll that those flaws took at times upon even its most devoted citizens. At the same time, his memoir vividly captures the passionate defense by the Soviet people against the massive Nazi assault upon their homeland.
“Love and War” is a memorable story of the greatest violence in history’s most violent century. It is a testament not only to courage in the face of massive Nazi assault, but also a testament to the capacity of human beings to find kindness and love in the midst of unparalleled suffering. It is a story that had to be told and should be read by all who seek a better understanding of our shared humanity.
