Sunday, March 26, 2006

check it out

i don't really know what it was about fuzzy's post that made me want to read one day in the life of ivan denisovich. it's probably my on-again, off-again eternal search for things that put my life in perspective. but in any event, i got it from the library last week and finished it off this weekend.

excellent book. and it didn't depress me. just like watching fight club will make me feel better about the world, this made me feel better about people. i guess that was the author's intention so i'm fairly unoriginal in this. but it just all made sense to me. under such inhuman and abject conditions i felt that the characters behaved in very human way. well, i won't go into it here. but check it out.

i'm beginning to think i like russian literature. first the master and the margarita, then anna karenina, now the life of ivan denisovich. that can't be all the russian literature i've read though can it? hmmm.

1 comment:

(jim) Bo Ba Log said...

I took a class in Russian Literature when I was an undergrad, and found it to be an excellent class. I recommend Mikhail Sholokhov's "Quiet Flows The Don" which deals with Russia during the transition to Communism from the view point of the Don Cossacks. It was my favorite book of that class. I might even still have it someplace.

Also, there is something about "Day in the Life . . ." that always makes me savor the heel of a loaf of good bread.