Book Review: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Source: E's English II World Lit reading
Rating: 5 of 5 STARS

This book tells the story of exactly what the title says: one day in the life of a man named Ivan Denisovich. What makes it so interesting, though, is that Ivan is in a Russian prison camp in Siberia in the mid 1900's. Doubly interesting is that though this is a work of fiction, it is based on the experiences of the author who was imprisoned in the same camp that his story is set.

The plot is straightforward: It starts with 5am reveille and ends with Ivan going back to sleep at lights out. In between we see his, and that of the other men in his 'gang', struggle for existence. Foremost in his thoughts is simply getting enough food for existence for this one day - his daily bread.

It is a bleak and depressing story, but the thought that this was (and still is in many places) reality for multitudes of people sentenced to prison work camps is incredible. It makes you count your blessings a little more closely. Here's an excerpt from the end of the book"

"Shukhov (Ivan) went to sleep and he was very happy. He'd had a lot of luck today. They hadn't put him in the cooler. The gang hadn't been chased out to work in the Socialist Community Development. He'd finagled an extra bowl of mush at noon. The boss had gotten them good rates for their work. He'd felt good making that wall. They hadn't found that piece of steel in the frisk. Caesar had paid him off in the evening. He'd bought some tobacco. And he'd gotten over that sickness.

Nothing had spoiled the day and it had been almost happy.

There were three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days like this in his sentence, from reveille to lights out.

The three extra ones were because of the leap years..."

Definitely recommend!