Tag Archives: Solzhenitsyn

Finished this last night and have been trying to put together a post on it since.  For me, there’s a hopefulness about human nature in this story.  Ivan (Shukhov) is living under cruel conditions in the prison, and yet he … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This relates back perhaps to an earlier posting, but there’s a thread of story I’m following beneath the story of Ivan (Shukhov) and the routine of his day in this prison camp, regardless of the backstory information we get. People … Continue reading → Continue reading →

While the story is told in third person pov, with the protagonist Ivan Denisovich a.k.a. Shukhov, there is what seems like narrator intrusion but which Solzhenitsyn uses as a tool to bring the reader into the cold world of Ivan’s … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The column passed the wood-processing factory, built by prison labor, the workers’ settlement (the huts had been assembled by prisoners too, but the inhabitants were civilians), the new club (convict-built in entirety, from the foundations to the mural decorations–but it … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Like I’ve said, rarely do I read the intro and foreword to a book until I’ve completed the reading, not wanting to be influenced by the kind accolades or author input that can seriously change a reader’s experience.  But with … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Solzhenitsyn endows his protatgonist, Denisovich, with the instincts of everyman, pits this reality against the unreality of life in a Russian prison camp. Shukhov knew how to manage anything. Work was like a stick.  It had two ends.  When you … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Within a very few pages, we are involved in the mind of Ivan Denisovich in the apathy he has towards his situation, and yet he still reveals the instincts to survive by learning about the guards and fellow prisoners and … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This is the first time I actually read the introduction to a book, possibly because I felt–and was right–that the backstory and setting that held the needed information would be here, rather than interwoven in the narrative.  Doing so immediately … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Couldn’t stay away from the pile. This will likely be a more meditative read, though it is short; it will take longer.  I won’t devour it to the exclusion of all else, and will be able, I hope, to still … Continue reading → Continue reading →