I find Solzhenitsyn's style to be a bit stilted. A far better writer on the Gulag topic, both from a stylistic and personal experience standpoint, is Varlam Shalamov, whose Kolyma Tales (Колымские рассказы) are considered some of the best on the topic.
Solzhenitsyn's story is set in Kazakhstan, which was not as brutally cold as Kolyma or Magadan, and Solzhenitsyn never saw the worst of the worst that the Gulag system had to offer. Shalamov saw the people coming back from uranium mines.
Either way, Solzhenitsyn has written other works which are better. In the First Circle (В Круге Первом) is probably the best.
Solzhenitsyn's story is set in Kazakhstan, which was not as brutally cold as Kolyma or Magadan, and Solzhenitsyn never saw the worst of the worst that the Gulag system had to offer. Shalamov saw the people coming back from uranium mines.
Either way, Solzhenitsyn has written other works which are better. In the First Circle (В Круге Первом) is probably the best.
The afterword in my copy of the book did mention In the First Circle amongst other books. I'll have to add it to my writing list.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Alexander Solzhenitsyn
- 10/01/2012 02:03:00 AM
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Shukhov is his last name, not a "nickname".
- 10/01/2012 02:23:27 AM
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Oh ... I missed that one ... its probably right at the beginning of the book too 
*NM*
- 10/01/2012 04:26:53 AM
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*NM*
- 10/01/2012 04:26:53 AM
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Still a really good book, though
- 11/01/2012 03:40:56 PM
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What I liked was that it didn't try to be a brutal, exaggerated, horrible story ...
- 13/01/2012 02:34:26 AM
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Interesting information ...
- 13/01/2012 02:29:01 AM
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