translated by Max
Hayward and Ronald Hingley
By my personal star rating system a
five star book represents a book I will read again. Solzhenitsyn's
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
is
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
by
that measurement.
I
won’t try to sell you on reading
this book,
you should already be sold. But
I
will explain why I enjoy it. I
have read this book at least five times since the late sixties. And
as you see by my rating, I will read it again. The first time, I read
it
over night. Like
ninety minute movies, two hundred page novels are few and far between
these days. There
should be more of them so you can enjoy them more often. You can’t
read Rebecca West’s Black
Lamb and Grey Falcon on
a lark.
Solzhenitsyn
shows us the best of human nature. Denisovich
retains
the ability to be a man in the worst of situations.
He
was
not a brick layer. But he has learned and mastered that trade
during his years in prison. He takes satisfaction in applying that
art and in the fact the others in
his work gang appreciate
his abilities. He
has retained his individuality.
In
the
work gang’s return to their barracks Solzhenitsyn presents
the vagaries of life. The definitions of friend or foe, right or
wrong are
simply cast by changing circumstances.
Could
you ask for more from another three hundred pages?
George
W. Parker
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