A Way of Hope: An Autobiography

by Lech Wałęsa

Walesa achieved fame in August 1980 when shipyard workers in Gdansk won the right to form a free trade union. In this long-awaited autobiography, he gives his unique insider perspective on Solidarity, the events leading to its formation and its fall. Concentrating on 1980-81, Walesa covers only briefly shipyard working conditions before 1980 and his internment after 1981. Mary Craig's Lech Walesa and His Poland ( LJ 9/15/87) places the events in context more fully. Despite all that he has endured, Walesa remains optimistic about the future. His insights make this a valuable book for most collections.--Marcia L. Sprules, Univ. of South Dakota Library.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Politics

325 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Lech Wałęsa is a Polish politician and a former trade union and human rights activist. He co-founded Solidarity (Solidarność), the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland from 1990 to 1995.

Source: Wikipedia.com

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, not great. The 1987 edition claims to be a translation from "Le Chemin d'espoir," and as far as I know, Walesa doesn't speak any more French than he does English, so who was his French ghostwriter? My edition doesn't say. His (or her) style is not inspiring. But I'm fascinated anyway. It is a distinctive voice, although something is clearly lost in the translation, and it takes me back to Poland--the cold wet winters, two-room flats full of children, coal smoke, trams and buses, heavy food, vodka. The revelation for me is just how bad things were under the Communist regime, which ended peacefully a couple years before I got there (which is why Mr. W. is my hero). I'm reading about the early years of the free labor unions, in the late 1970's, when Walesa and his companions were feeling their way in the dark, negotiating with the regime, trying to keep their jobs, learning to give speeches without losing their tempers. (At the same time, he and his wife were raising 7 children in one of those two-room flats.)

One fascinating thing in this book is Walesa's spectacular lack of self-awareness. His contributors write about him. He writes about his family and Solidarity, not about himself.

My parents got to meet Lech Walesa two years ago. I have a picture of the three of them together. Mom and Dad look excited and happy. Between them, Mr. Walesa is grinning and gripping his hands together--clearly very nervous. The hero of Solidarnosc, friend of the Pope, and past president of Poland is very human.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

325 pages. Donated 2010 May

I sometimes feel as if I belong to a past age, the age which is evoked in our national anthem, "Poland has not perished." The conditions in which this anthem saw the light of day are much the same as those we live under today, and the same can be siad of the hopes and values it expresses: courage, defiance, pride. But there will come a time, which I won't live to see, when narrow dPolish problems have been brushed aside, replaced by harmony and peace over our entire planet, and I expect that our children or our children's chilcren will then be able to sing another, more ositive sone. Until that time we have work to do.
-Lech Waleska, Gdansk, March 1987.

[David Trawinski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, and especially since it was written in 1987, two years before the transformational events of 1989. Walesa paints the insights into the strikes of 1970, 1980 and Martial Law in 1981. He stresses non-violence at every turn. And of course today we know that course was eventually not only successful, but literally derailed communism in Poland and beyond.

[Ruppert Baird · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written not long after his rise to fame as a leader of Poland's Solidarity ('Solidarnosz') Movement that eventually led to the downfall of the communist regime and communist Eastern Europe, this is an engaging look into a man who was able to rally striking shipyard workers into a viable political and social force.

[Nick]

awesome.