One Day in the Life of
Ivan Denisovich is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s groundbreaking 1962 novel about
life in a Soviet labor camp. I read the Ralph Parker
translation.
Solzhenitsyn takes the reader through Shukhov’s everyday
activities, including all things mundane, as well as into the prisoner’s
mindset, illuminating a number of interesting and surprising attitudes. All
this is done with the extensive detail of personal experience, which makes One Day immersive and compelling. The
novel builds slowly and steadily before making a rather sizeable impact upon its
conclusion.
One Day is a short
novel, and yet Solzhenitsyn does an excellent job of depicting not only Shukhov’s
personality, tenacity, and attitudes, but also, in sketches, those of many others
in his squad as well as their interactions. Solzhenitsyn’s breath of life in
these characters helps the reader invest in all their fates.
In short, One Day is
a stark look into an important part of twentieth-century history as well as a
well-told account of humanity’s aptitude for both cruelty and survival.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
