leezareadsbooks 's review for:

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

5.0

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A really well written story, important and makes you think. What's different about this book as compared to other historical fiction books is we don't start at the begging, rather 8 years into a 10 year sentence for Shukov. What was his life before? How did he feel about bs capture? Don't know mucb because that isn't the point of the story. Shukov's attitude to his imprisonment is one of indifference and being used to it. As an outsider looking in, its horrific but you're impacted by the descriptions of life in the Gulag even more just because of how normal this life seems to be for the inmates. No way out for them. Even Shukov has no hope in his release knowing they may stick him in exile or just tack on 10 more years. It's historical fiction but this all really happened. Everyone should read this book, simple but poignant.