Book Review- One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich

One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich
By Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Everyman's Library(Knopf)
ISBN-0-679-44464-5
Pages-159

This book may be a modern Russian classic but its English translation(translated by H.T. Willetts) and published by Alfred. A. Knopf is so bland and boring that I used it for at least two weeks as my pillow book. By 'pillow book' I mean the book that makes you sleep quickly. I could hardly read a page and my eye lids would start closing with heaviness. Such a powerful stuff is the 159 pages long novella of the Nobel Laureate Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn. I hope the original Russian version is a better read.

The book as titled tells the events of one day in the life of Ivan Denisovich and other Zeks ( inmates in the Siberian prison camp) Shukhov, Senka, Tyurin etc. in a Siberian prison camp where they struggle for their everyday existence under the whim of the camp authorities who know no laws, have no respect for human values, dignity or rule of law. The books clearly states the hopelessness of those times when anybody could be sent to Siberia on flimsy grounds viz. showing disrespect to the ruler, belonging to a particular community or just at the whim of any petty official. The book at the same time preserves hope and the triumph of the spirit even in gloomy times by giving its characters strong voice.

This book is a continuation of the great Russian literature where history, suffering and servitude are omnipresent and give shape and direction to the characters.