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A review by edders
Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, David Burg, Nicholas Bethell
5.0
Having just finished this I am now eager to obtain a copy of Solzhenitsyn's other more famous work, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
The parallels between a hospital and a prison have been the basis of much artistic and philosophical thought for at least a century: the institution, the lack of choice, the submission. Uniform, regulated times for actions and meals, prohibitions, etc. This is not missed in this book, by the author or by his characters - but it plays secondary to the urgency of death pressed over all the patients on the ward. They begin their own grappling struggle with the meaning of their lives and what they should do in the time they have left. There is much here which is compatible with now accepted ways of treating patients in this position, respecting their willpower, informing them of choice and recognising that they have come to seek treatment not as blank slates and pieces of flesh to receive biological cures but as human entities with desires, fears, agendas etc etc.
The passions evoked in each character and the urgency of life in this book make it very enjoyable and it feels like an authentic portrayal of many dilemmas and life situations. There is a strong political element to this novel - and a stronger one to Ivan Denisovich, focusing as it does on the camps only alluded to in this book - and it is all the more valid in the politics represented because it feels devoid of contrived cliches or artificial pictures. Obviously the situation is changed and no doubt things happen a little more dramatically than they might in real life but the agonies and passions felt are convincing and evocative.
I recommend this but those that read it may well be dulled by the translation or confused due to lack of context. This book is caught up in the intrigues of Soviet Russian power and without knowledge or curiosity about them it perhaps wouldn't have the same sparkle.
The parallels between a hospital and a prison have been the basis of much artistic and philosophical thought for at least a century: the institution, the lack of choice, the submission. Uniform, regulated times for actions and meals, prohibitions, etc. This is not missed in this book, by the author or by his characters - but it plays secondary to the urgency of death pressed over all the patients on the ward. They begin their own grappling struggle with the meaning of their lives and what they should do in the time they have left. There is much here which is compatible with now accepted ways of treating patients in this position, respecting their willpower, informing them of choice and recognising that they have come to seek treatment not as blank slates and pieces of flesh to receive biological cures but as human entities with desires, fears, agendas etc etc.
The passions evoked in each character and the urgency of life in this book make it very enjoyable and it feels like an authentic portrayal of many dilemmas and life situations. There is a strong political element to this novel - and a stronger one to Ivan Denisovich, focusing as it does on the camps only alluded to in this book - and it is all the more valid in the politics represented because it feels devoid of contrived cliches or artificial pictures. Obviously the situation is changed and no doubt things happen a little more dramatically than they might in real life but the agonies and passions felt are convincing and evocative.
I recommend this but those that read it may well be dulled by the translation or confused due to lack of context. This book is caught up in the intrigues of Soviet Russian power and without knowledge or curiosity about them it perhaps wouldn't have the same sparkle.