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Book Review, © Copyright 1997, Jim Loy
This small book may be Solzhenitzyn's most famous novel. It became a wonderful movie, by the way.
It is the story of a day in the life of one man, a prisoner in a work camp, in cold cold cold Siberia.
Far from being a dreary tale of the down-trodden, this story is a series of minor triumphs. Ivan, the title character, barters for an extra piece of bread. The camp trouble-maker and stool-pidgeon gets punished. And best of all, Ivan survives the day, to certainly triumph again on other days.
Solzhenitzyn's writing style is unadorned (even crude) but powerful. It is as if no clever and colorful word is going to distract you from the power of the story itself.
Read all of his novels. I especially liked Cancer Ward, and August 1914.
To order this book, click Amazon.com (goes directly to this book).