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A review by li3an1na4
Kolyma Tales by Варлам Шаламов, John Glad, Varlam Shalamov
5.0
A collection of 54 short stories documenting different aspects of live at the Kolyma gulag (forced labor camp) in the Soviet Union. Kolyma was known to be one of the most brutal gulags during the period. It's estimated that 120,000-130,000 people died there. There's a great New Yorker article where the author goes to visit Kolyma and also goes into the history of it (and other gulags).
This collection of short stories is depressing and difficult but well written. The stories don't have happy endings for the most part, but that was the nature of life in a gulag. The work was back breaking, the conditions were dire, and the food was barely enough (or not enough) to sustain the workers. The prose is simple, perhaps because it's translated, but the characters are fleshed out and their situations are so well realized you might wonder if the author is just typing up stories he heard from people. And the thing is, that just might be the case. Varlam Shalamov, the author, did spend years in and out of Kolyma and other gulags as a prisoner. So it's possible they are just stories he saw, experienced, or heard rumblings of while he was there. It's hard to separate fact from fiction in these stories and why do we need to? It's the perfect fusion of art and life, where everything is so raw and real and believable that minor historical inaccuracies can be overlooked for the sake of the story. But knowing that there is more than a grain of truth, that these stories come from real people and real lives lost that is the real emotional core.
Everyone has heard of Soviet gulags, but in the US we don't really learn much about them, and what we do learn is vague - they were bad and the conditions were bad. But what does that mean? Kolyma Tales fills in everything anyone could want to know. You're with the prisoners as they cry over their rations. You feel the desperate need to leave. You understand why they're willing to kill each other for the smallest of scraps. For better or worse, the short stories are a full immersion into a gulag and the mindset of the people there.
I read this book on and off for more than three years because getting into the gulag mindset is perhaps not a particularly enjoyable way to pass time. But the stories are too good for me to even try to dock any points off.
This collection of short stories is depressing and difficult but well written. The stories don't have happy endings for the most part, but that was the nature of life in a gulag. The work was back breaking, the conditions were dire, and the food was barely enough (or not enough) to sustain the workers. The prose is simple, perhaps because it's translated, but the characters are fleshed out and their situations are so well realized you might wonder if the author is just typing up stories he heard from people. And the thing is, that just might be the case. Varlam Shalamov, the author, did spend years in and out of Kolyma and other gulags as a prisoner. So it's possible they are just stories he saw, experienced, or heard rumblings of while he was there. It's hard to separate fact from fiction in these stories and why do we need to? It's the perfect fusion of art and life, where everything is so raw and real and believable that minor historical inaccuracies can be overlooked for the sake of the story. But knowing that there is more than a grain of truth, that these stories come from real people and real lives lost that is the real emotional core.
Everyone has heard of Soviet gulags, but in the US we don't really learn much about them, and what we do learn is vague - they were bad and the conditions were bad. But what does that mean? Kolyma Tales fills in everything anyone could want to know. You're with the prisoners as they cry over their rations. You feel the desperate need to leave. You understand why they're willing to kill each other for the smallest of scraps. For better or worse, the short stories are a full immersion into a gulag and the mindset of the people there.
I read this book on and off for more than three years because getting into the gulag mindset is perhaps not a particularly enjoyable way to pass time. But the stories are too good for me to even try to dock any points off.