Ivan Denisovich ...

Just finished this book what is about a man who is in like a prison thing in Russia and that.


In fact this book, based on Solzhenitsyn's own experience I believe, is about a man who is a political prisoner in one of Stalin's labour camps in the 1950s.  It's a brief and easy to read book which comes with some kudos and is quite good to leave on your desk at work because reading Solzhenitsyn makes you sound instantly intellectual.


It does what it says on the tin and describes one day in Ivan Denisovich Shukov's boring, cold, terrible life as he works his way through his ten year stretch.


His crime?   He was caught by the Nazis and escaped - therefore he was obviously a spy.  That'll be ten years for you, Ivan.  It's grotesquely unfair but he's become so institutionalised that he barely even complains anymore.  As is usual for people in these situations, he simply survives as best he can.


But that's not to do him down.  He is a remarkable character, an almost messianic everyman rather in the mould of Leopold Bloom.  The kind of character writers put before us as an example of the hugeness of human, the importance of each individual person.  There is a universe in every one.  The sort of character, in short, who emerges after a war.


It's hard to describe boredom without being boring and occasionally the novel lags very slightly - but as usual with these things the overall effect is worth the effort.  And it is a pretty slim volume, as I said.  By the time you get to the end you might just have tears in your eyes as Shukov looks back over his good day.


That's the hook you see, a day we would consider nightmarish is actually pretty good for him because he gets an extra bowl of watery soup and smuggles a hacksaw blade into camp.  The flickers of hope in his barren world will illuminate yours.


There is a kind of transcendence to him - he requires nothing more than enough to eat, a little warmth, not to suffer too harshly at the hands of the sadistic, cruel, petty regime under which he lives. 


And that's what raises this above a standard, entirely justified, novel of protest.  It's not about how bad things are - it's about how people can exist with hope in even the worst, most hopeless situations.


A beautiful, clear, precise, huge little book.