One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
1962
Around 185 pages
This is a good novel to keep on hand when you are having a bad day, as a reminder that things could always be worse. It's like the adult version of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Day.
The plot of this novel is pretty much explained in the title. We follow Ivan through a day in a Gulag, where he has been sentenced to serve for ten years. The prisoners are mostly just trying to get through the day, and there are small acts of kindness that make the experience slightly less nightmarish. Very slightly.
I always love stories that are confined to a single day. Solzhenitsyn had personal experience to draw from, so he does an excellent job portraying the brutal conditions of a Soviet labor camp. Obviously this is a pretty tough read, but it's worth it.
For a relatively short novel, he really captures how time would grind to a complete halt if you were stuck in this world.
RATING: ****-
Interesting Facts:
The labor camp featured in the book was one that Solzhenitsyn had served some time at, and was located in Karaganda in northern Kazakhstan.
Over 95,000 copies sold.
UP NEXT: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
1 comment:
Wow. I don't think I can read this. I did read Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl--his very inspiring book about surviving the Holocaust. That was enough. I admire writers who can share these horrors so that we know.
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