A review by trainisloud
The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

5.0

A powerful book filled with recounts of life (and death) in Russian work camps thru the 30s-50s. The life and subjugation of the prisoners is so horrific that it is hard to imagine how he engages sustains the reader with material so void of hope and sense. Solzhenitsyn does this through his near sardonic wit, his literary prowess, and his unbelievable recounting with clarity. He writes about the absurdly cruel way prisoners were treated by not only giving details, but providing the emotional and cognitive process thru the prisoners eyes; specific food rations (capturing the certain death of a disident who protested the quantity of bread), the process of going to the bathroom (eliminating the feeling of escape in the most literal way for this natural process), maintaining material possessions (by being free of them), torture (the rationale for finding the perfect amount of time to release or fabricate information). Truly a seminal work, I highly recommend for anyone interested in Russian history or how people can sustain in seemingly hopeless places.