Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
 The Impossibly Inhumane Is Humanly Possible November 16, 2008
Gripping. This account of one day in the life of a gulag prisoner is a terrifying insight into the barbarity of us humans. Who knows the true number of intelligent and educated men who were in cahoots with Stalin to design a system that reduced men to wild dogs and dust. And lest we fool ourselves that this could only have happened in soviet Russia or fascist Germany. Remember we had slavery in the US and all over Africa and the Middle East, in Greece, Rome, ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. These are just the ones where we have something written down. Today we also have economic gulags - in Brazil, Mexico, India and in western economies where we are actively encouraged to keep spending especially on credit burying ourselves in a ballooning muck of debt. With luck we might get something as beautiful and useful as Ivan Denisovich out of Guantanamo Bay. Civilized Minds Of The World, Unite!
The most important book written in the last century October 18, 2008
My Dad gave me "One Day" for my fifteenth birthday and, at a time when Neo-Marxism was the academic rigour of the decade (and whose methodology I consequently mastered), it lent me an abiding uneasiness with the left's meritricious claims to monopolise progressive thought. A microcosm of a peoples tragedy and an exoriating expose of the Soviet regime's reality.
 A harrowing 'must-read' July 16, 2008
Set in a post-war Stalinist labour camp, this novel, as the title suggests, centres on a single day in the life of `political prisoner' Ivan Denisovich, from (before) sunrise to (well after) sunset. As one might imagine, Ivan has little to look forward to on this `typical' day in the camp; ultra sub-zero temperatures, horrendous food, forced labour, and incessantly picky guards all await him, and his fellow inmates. As harrowing as the day is though, this day actually turns out to be one of the `better' ones, which although bringing a little cheer to Ivan, leaves the reader puzzling (and more than a little shocked), over what must constitute a `bad' day in one of these places.
Comprising of a mere 143 pages, I finished reading this classic rather speedily, although perhaps not as `speedily' as I would have, if I were reading a novel that originated in English. As a qualified historian I'm wholly familiar with clumsy translations, and sadly this translated novel is no different. So if you're planning on reading this yourself, then be prepared to re-read a number of the sentences, in order to fully decipher their full meaning. Don't let that put you off though (or from reading any translated Russian literature for that matter), as the minor hindrance caused by having to pause and re-read, is completed negated by the quality of this work.
Along with other works that he penned during the 1960's, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn got himself into a lot of bother from the Soviet authorities for writing this novel, and after reading it, it's clear to see why. Aided by more than a liberal dose of anti-Stalinist sentimentality, Mr. Solzhenitsyn pulls no punches in describing the conditions in Soviet labour camps. Given that he himself spent eight years in these camps, after the war, this is no surprise, but because Mr. Solzhenitsyn was able to infuse his own experiences into this novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is an absolute `must read' - just don't expect to leave your chair in anything like a cheery mood.
mandatory reading January 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you only read 20 books in your whole life this should be one of them,
 Vaguely interesting December 20, 2007
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
Amazed that someone could write so much about one day and make it vaguely interesting, but he does it and writes from harsh experience. Never thought the building of a brick wall could be such an adventure. It makes one realise how lucky one is. This is not anything special though, you are relieved when you get to the end. He did get the Nobel Prize for Literature, but I would rather read Bridget Jones to be honest.
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