617. Cancer Ward

Cancer Ward
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
1966
Around 560 pages

A cancer ward in Soviet Russia is just about the most depressing place I can think of, so naturally, that's the next setting on the List. Despite its ominous title, I actually enjoyed this one, starting with the first sentence: "On top of everything, the cancer wing was Number 13." Not bad, Solz.

Kostoglotov is a former soldier and gulag prisoner in a hospital for cancer treatment. He has two romances in the story, one with a doctor and one with a nurse. Anyone has who spent time in the hospital will be able to relate to his account of the ward. Although none of the doctors or nurses fell in love with me during my stays. Or if they did, they played it pretty close to the chest.

The novel takes place one year after Stalin's death, and Solzhenitsyn does an excellent job exploring the corruption of the regime using the character of Pavel Nikolayevich, a cancer patient and personnel officer. But his exploration and observations of death and cancer are universal and timeless. 

Obviously, this is a relentlessly depressing novel, just like A Day in The Life of Ivan Ilyich. But still brilliant.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Distributed in Russia that year in samizdat, and banned there the following year.

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