A review by unionmack
The Gulag Archipelago, Volume 1 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

5.0

I can't think of many books that have impressed more than this one. If this is an "experiment" in literary investigation, it has to be one of the most successful in human history. The attention to detail—the horrifying atrocities, the human moments amidst them, the humor implicit in even the darkest times—woven through each vignette, whether about Solzhenitsyn's own life, someone else he knew, or Soviet history in general, is staggering. He can describe panoramas as well as he can put instances under the microscope. The fact he's as funny as he is too is just icing on the cake. It's enthralling straight through and it's crazy to think, over 700 pages later, that this opus of his is just revving up. People were calling this essential reading right after it came out and I think they're still right now and always will be.