Like an extremely long letter from a dear old uncle, this Second World War memoir contains some genuinely interesting anecdotes, but readers have to slog through an overwhelming number of incidental and forgettable details to find them.

Topolski’s wartime adventures began along the Polish-Romanian border one wintry night in 1941. Two months shy of his 17th birthday, he was captured trying to flee his native Poland, and thrown into the first of a succession of Soviet prisons. Small and underaged, he proved himself clever and intelligent enough to survive life among thieves, pickpockets, murderous gang members, and alcoholics so desperate that on at least one occasion they literally drank themselves blind on paint and lacquer.

After the Soviet Union declared amnesty for Polish prisoners, Topolski signed up for his country’s army-in-exile, which trained near the Soviet-Afghanistan border. Undernourished and sickly – he had scurvy and chronic diarrhea and was referred to by one officer as “a walking skeleton” – he was still considered hardy enough to be admitted to an officers’ training program.

After the war ended, Topolski eventually settled in Canada, where he joined Public Works Canada in Ottawa. Married to a Canadian journalist, he was inspired to write Without Vodka, he says in his introduction, so that his children and grandchildren would know how he spent the early years of the war. That – and the fact that he is an architect by trade and not a writer – probably explains why he included seemingly every detail of his life between 1939 and 1942, no matter how graphic, disgusting, or insignificant.

As befits a story set largely in prison camps, there is plenty of salty language and X-rated references, which seems rather curious given Topolski’s impetus for writing his memoir. But those details aside, this is just the sort of book that family members are likely to love. Second World War buffs, Soviet trivia aficionados, and anyone who had experiences similar to Topolski’s will probably also enjoy reading about his adventures.

Others, however, should wait for an abridged version.