Book Review: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Source: Amazon.com

From the book’s cover:

First published in 1962, this book is considered one of the most significant works ever to emerge from Soviet Russia. Illuminating a dark chapter in Russian history, it is at once a graphic picture of work camp life and a moving tribute to man's will to prevail over relentless dehumanization, told by "a literary genius whose talent matches that of Dostoyevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy, [and] Gorky" (Harrison Salisbury, New York Times).

The Review:

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich would be really good fiction if it wasn't about things that really happened. Of course Ivan Denisovich himself is a composite character of prisoners Solzhenitsyn must have known, but his story is really... well it sounds like gilding the lily, but the only word I can come up with is "compelling." Talk about a miserable life. Solzhenitsyn makes it all sound so matter of fact, but when you think about what is going on, it is really amazing that anyone could live through even one day of this.

The introduction (which was too long, in my opinion, and spent too much time building up how great the book was) mentioned that Solzhenitsyn accurately captured both the gulag situation and encapsulated the experience of the normal Soviet citizen at the same time (the hoarding, the pointless bureaucracy, the double-dealing and back-biting and the poverty; all these come to mind).

The author, Alexander Solzhenitsyn / Source: Wikipedia.com 

I thought it was funny how at the end, Ivan says "thank God" when the day is done, and the baptist who is in the barracks with him gives him a lecture on how he really should pray. And then how Ivan rebuffs him. It seemed clear to me that this is the hoist that the book is hanging on. All the build up with the activities of the day, and it all came down to this editorializing by Solzhenitsyn. But when I say editorializing, it sounds like I'm being patronizing. I don't mean it that way. This is the "moral," if you will. The crutch of the thing.

I also liked how Ivan counts his blessings at the end of the day. He obtained lots of extra food, his work crew didn't have to go to work at the Socialist housing project, he did good work on the job at the powerplant, he managed to smuggle that little piece of steel into the camp, he got rewards for helping Cesar with his package, and he got good wages for his work. It is funny how little he really had to be grateful for compared to the real world, and yet to someone in that specific situation, it would seem like a really good day. If I was in his shoes, I'd certainly chock it up as a good day. Thank heavens I have never been in Ivan Denisovitch's shoes.

Still image from the 1970 film adaptation of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. The film stars Tom Courtenay, shown here (center). / Source: nationalmediamuseum.org.uk

The extreme nature of the environment and what the gulag prisoners had to go through makes a person appreciate just how bad a system this was, and admire those who could live through it for any space of time. Solzhenitsyn makes his point quite well here: the Soviet work prison system was inherently cruel, and yet it fit the nature of Russian character all too well. Escape seems like a silly idea; indeed, the prisoners themselves rail against anybody who might have tried, since they are being kept out in the cold just that much longer during the prisoner count. The inhumanity of man against even his fellows was what made this system work so well and helped to possess millions of Soviet citizens for so long during the Soviet years.

Gripes I had in the book? None in particular. The language is coarse, and it is translated in a very 50s/60s nature. The intro said the story was written in such a way as to sound like the way talk was in the camps, with its coarseness and slang, and the translation of that to English seems to have taken on a period tone, to my ear. And yes, the language is quite crude in places. The survivors aren't nice fellows, or if they are, there is little altruism to their actions. Everything that happens is for your own survival for just one more day.

During the Soviet era, the prison GULAG was a convenient place to put many undesirables.  The far expanses of Siberia contained many such camps as the one depicted in Solzhenitsyn's novel. / Source: GUIM.co.uk

Oh, about my gripe. The recording seems to have been done in a "play it back and record in the open air"-manner, rather than a more competent dubbing, and the guy doing it is a bit clumsy. Not a pristine recording by any means. But its better than not getting to read it at all, which my time constraints would have led to if I hadn't had this dubious quality recording to go from.

Learn more about One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, on Amazon.com


The parting comment:

Source: LOLSnaps.com

The Soviet totalitarian method of parenthood: "Bad baby, you stay duct taped to this wall here until you're forty-seven and have gall stones.  Then we'll rehabilitate you and bring you back into polite society."  Though I gotta admit, I've wanted to duct tape a kid or two to the wall on occasion.  Never would do it, but it's a nice fantasy to play in the back of your mind when they (usually a sixth grader, from my experience as a librarian) start acting like a slightly over-evolved monkey.