As some have said this is a book you can judge from its cover, or rather title. It details one day in the life of Ivan Denisovich, in one of Stalin's labour camps in Siberia. We see the camp and daily life through the eyes of Denisovich a base individual driven base by necessity and instinct. The account of this single day is both simple and compelling. There is a large element of allegory and allusion in the text which is well worked and wrought out of nothing but personal experience from the author and goes a long way to explain how contentious the book was and why is ws banned in the Soviet state,. We are left in no doubt as to the horror of the camp and the general consensus of her 'guests'. The detail Solzhenitsyn provides always seems to be appropriate in terms of suitability in context and graphic enough to represent daily life and leave us accordingly appalled. Fascinating reading wich should be read be all.
Wonderful book. I read it around three years ago and it's been a favorite since. It's definitely a great read if you're not in the mood for the entire Archipelago collection. Highly recommended.
