Not an "easy" read like Solzhenitsyn's A DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH, but intellectually much more rewarding if you can plow through the hundreNot an "easy" read like Solzhenitsyn's A DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH, but intellectually much more rewarding if you can plow through the hundreds of different characters and intersecting plotlines. A wonderfully intimate portrait of Soviet intellectual society from within the elit "First Circle" of the Soviet Gulag. A single five-paged chapter about the lonley hallway patrol of Nikita, the red-headed prison warden told me more about the human condition than most of what I have experienced in my own lifetime. Solzhenitsyn's philosophy, social commentary, and desire to convey the true experience of the camps draws out the writing at times, but a very rewarding book. Pretty much built my senior thesis off the fascinating paradox between physical and intellectual freedom in the Soviet Union....me and my Russian lit, what can I say? ...more
Grossman's last book, and a sum-up of his very powerful philosophy and analysis of not only the Soviet Union, but the human experience in general. FolGrossman's last book, and a sum-up of his very powerful philosophy and analysis of not only the Soviet Union, but the human experience in general. Follows a man named Ivan through his own process of self-discovery as he comes back to Moscow after decades in the Soviet Gulag. The ending is extremely powerful--I probably had to read this book 30 times while working on my thesis (it is rather short), and every time I got to the end, I was blown away. Not a book to read while you are already sad though! Although it does put a bad day in perspective......more
Amazing. That is all. It's long, sweeping, epic, and completely heartbreaking, but one of the more powerful books I have read. I devoted a whole chaptAmazing. That is all. It's long, sweeping, epic, and completely heartbreaking, but one of the more powerful books I have read. I devoted a whole chapter of my thesis to it, if that is any indicator to how much I liked it! Follows a fictional Russian-Jewish family through the Nazi invasion/Holocaust/Stalinist period in Russia and the Ukraine. Written in the tradition of Tolstoy's War and Peace. ...more
Loading...
