One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)

Sep 06, 2008 Brad rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: russian-lit, historical, to-read-again, classic, notorious

I want to appreciate life the way Ivan Denisovich Shukov does.

I want to take pride in my work; I want to taste every bite of sausage, suck the marrow out of every fish bone, enjoy every puff of every cigarette, bask in a sunset, watch the moon cross the sky, fall asleep content; I want to focus on the necessities of living; I want to focus on life, but I have too much. It's not much compared to most everyone I know, but it is still too much.

And because it is too much I can't appreciate life the ...more

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Jan 11, 2018 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-the-world-2018-2020, russian-lit, read-in-2019, read-the-world, classics, 1001-books, read-in-2022

Solzhenitsyn wrote a really good novella that effectively showed the horrendous life of people in the forced labor camps run by the Soviet government. He showed the dreariness and sameness of the days, which must have led to so much boredom and even mental breakdowns. He allowed the reader to feel the cold seep into their bones. He made me hungry. I was completely immersed in the story and longing for a way to break the pattern. And then as the book wound to an end he brilliantly told of the tho ...more

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Mar 08, 2011 Brad rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: soviet, audio-book, iron-curtain-lit

I'm slowly getting sucked into the world of audiobooks and loving them more and more, but I nearly abandoned this one. I am glad I didn't, though.

This Blackstone edition suffers from one of the most painful voices I have ever heard -- some guy named Richard Brown. He has a nasally, whiny, smoke-too-much voice that grates the ears the way skin grates when a thumb slips off a carrot and gets shredded. He makes no attempt to offer performance of any sort, opting instead for straight reading. No var ...more

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Oct 14, 2011 Brad rated it it was amazing

Shelves: soviet, russian-lit, the-best

How do we measure a life greatly lived? Is it what’s left behind by the person living it (some monument to his/her wherewithal or creativity)? Is it the family s/he births and raises? Is it the way s/he dies? Or is it the way s/he lives regardless of accolades or remembrance or emotion?

Ivan Denisovich Shukov lives his life, day to day, the way I aspire to live my own. He lives it for survival and simple pleasures. He tastes everything he eats. He hears everything his ears pick up. He sees everyt ...more

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Mar 22, 2012 Laura rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction-20th-century, bookcrossing, drama, read-2012, historical-fiction, russian-fiction, russia, mtbr-challenge-2012, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, nobel-prize

A great masterpiece written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

This book will be released at Biblioteca Mário de Andrade. ...more

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Dec 30, 2013 Kai Coates rated it it was amazing

Shelves: group-bookish, w14-bookish-challenge

One of the things I found most compelling about One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is Solzhenitsyn's restraint. As a man who spent years in prison for political dissention, you might imagine he would use the largely autobiographical novel to rage against the Soviet government. Yet, instead of boiling fury, what Solzhenitsyn has created is a simmering testament to injustice. The hero of the tale, Ivan Denisovich, has spent 8 years in various prisons and does not outwardly fight the system. In ...more

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