bookguyeric 's review for:

The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy

4.0

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A relentless exposition of the death of an ordinary man. Not the “die in your sleep” type of death, but the death that takes place with full awareness of its approach over months, weeks, days, hours. Tolstoy was obsessed with the idea of death. About the experience of it, and about how we avoid thinking about it in civilized society. To those not in its imminent grip, it’s an inconvenience. But to those experiencing it firsthand, it’s absurd. An awful injustice. A howling agony. An internal drama of the most shattering kind.

Until the end, anyway. By all reports, there is a peace and acceptance that finally sets in.