Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
29th out of 283 books
—
1,015 voters
Cancer Ward
One of the great allegorical masterpieces of world literature, Cancer Ward is both a deeply compassionate study of people facing terminal illness and a brilliant dissection of the “cancerous” Soviet police state.
Paperback, 576 pages
Published
May 1st 2003
by Vintage Classics
(first published 1968)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
3,000)
Do I remember the Cold War? You bet I do. I think about it every day. It is as fundamental a part of my upbringing -- as defining of me as Catholicism, American Patriotism, Canadian Anti-Americanism, homophobia, abuse and bisexuality.
It wasn't just something that was happening in the world. In my household, with an American father, a U.S. Coast Guard Veteran (he was a Coastie who was all set to go to Vietnam with U.S. Coast Guard Squadron One -- and wanted to go -- when the U.S. finally pulled o...more
It wasn't just something that was happening in the world. In my household, with an American father, a U.S. Coast Guard Veteran (he was a Coastie who was all set to go to Vietnam with U.S. Coast Guard Squadron One -- and wanted to go -- when the U.S. finally pulled o...more
Cancer Ward … hmmm… Oh, Cancer Ward….
What was I expecting from you? Certainly not a frolicky day in the park… no Maurice Chevalier dance routines. Nope. I can’t say I was duped.
Cancer sucks. Hell, I’m not spouting some fresh angle on an old dictum. Just nod and agree, folks. Most of us have had some dealings with it, some more than others… it’s one of the nastiest things out there… rots you from the inside out, leaves you to dwell on things left unaccomplished and fills your head with messy wo...more
What was I expecting from you? Certainly not a frolicky day in the park… no Maurice Chevalier dance routines. Nope. I can’t say I was duped.
Cancer sucks. Hell, I’m not spouting some fresh angle on an old dictum. Just nod and agree, folks. Most of us have had some dealings with it, some more than others… it’s one of the nastiest things out there… rots you from the inside out, leaves you to dwell on things left unaccomplished and fills your head with messy wo...more
23 likes · like · see review
Scene: Tashkent,Uzbekistan, in Central Asia,the old Soviet Union, two years after the death of Stalin(1955).Oleg Kostoglotov is lying on the floor of a provincial hospital.At the entrance to the cancer ward, which is unpromising named , the 13th wing.He can't get admitted until a space is available.Kostoglotov, a survivor of the Gulag and a permanent exile, can wait.The very sick Russian has little hope for recovery. Finally, Oleg gets in.Nine beds in two rows ,separated by an aisle in the room...more
Sep 29, 2012
☽ Moon ☯ 佛月球 Будда Луны
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to ☽ Moon ☯ by:
Henry Avila
As the cliche goes, money is the root of all evil, and many would agree that indeed it is. On the contrary, it contradicts the essence of what had become human living since time immemorial. As human living immersed itself voluntarily in the deep dark materiality of existence, as it is beleaguered by the sensual pleasures of physicality. In truth, the want of money is only a direct object. It appears only as the end goal to attain the inexhaustible, human yearning for
material happiness
. This bu...more
5 likes · like · see review
"Well, what have we here? Another nice little cancer!"
"The hard lump of his tumor—unexpected, meaningless and quite without use—had dragged him in like a fish on a hook and flung him onto this iron bed—a narrow, mean bed, with creaking springs and an apology for a mattress."
Solzhenitsyn writes beautifully about human physical, moral, social, and political conditions; over-layering each consideration one upon the other. His books do not depress me, I find them powerful and hopeful documents to th...more
"The hard lump of his tumor—unexpected, meaningless and quite without use—had dragged him in like a fish on a hook and flung him onto this iron bed—a narrow, mean bed, with creaking springs and an apology for a mattress."
Solzhenitsyn writes beautifully about human physical, moral, social, and political conditions; over-layering each consideration one upon the other. His books do not depress me, I find them powerful and hopeful documents to th...more
5 likes · like · see review
Niente da fare, i romanzieri russi hanno una loro marcia speciale, l'equivalente letterario delle facoltà extrasensoriali, e riescono a scrivere storie che sono allo stesso tempo dipinti e hanno la pregnanza della verità più vera.
Questo è vero per il grande Tolstoj, per Gogol, per Bulgakov e in modo particolare per Solzenicyn.
Reparto C, o Padiglione Cancro, come è titolato in alcune edizioni, è un moderno Guerra e Pace, e non a caso, nel dialogo, le vivissime personalità (personaggi sarebbe ridu...more
Questo è vero per il grande Tolstoj, per Gogol, per Bulgakov e in modo particolare per Solzenicyn.
Reparto C, o Padiglione Cancro, come è titolato in alcune edizioni, è un moderno Guerra e Pace, e non a caso, nel dialogo, le vivissime personalità (personaggi sarebbe ridu...more
3 likes · like · see review
Solid, emotionally satisfying, well-written Solzhenitsyn novel set in a small cancer ward in Soviet Uzbekistan in 1955, 2 years after Stalin's death. Sound like fun? Well, actually it is. Not all that depressing with moments of levity and with some almost Dickensonian characters.
Actually, I was about half way through the book before I figured out who the protagonist was, this exiled former soldier with stomach cancer, Oleg Kostoglotov...probably a stand-in for Solzhenitsyn who had similar exper...more
Actually, I was about half way through the book before I figured out who the protagonist was, this exiled former soldier with stomach cancer, Oleg Kostoglotov...probably a stand-in for Solzhenitsyn who had similar exper...more
2 likes · like · see review
The greyness of the cancer theme (it's set in a cancer ward) is just like a mirroring backdrop for the Soviet Union that it showcases. Vignettes of the lives of patients, doctors, nurses and others; from the high-ranking and staunch Soviet bureaucrat Rusanov to the poor exile Kostoglotov, it breaks their political and ideological positions down to their narrower human concerns and desires, such as the materialism of Rusanov's home that he enjoys, or Kostoglotov's desire for a woman that takes up...more
3 likes · like · see review
Mar 22, 2009
El
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to El by:
1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (209/1001)
Solzhenitsyn's cancer ward is in post-Stalin, Soviet Uzbekistan in the mid-fifties. This behemoth follows the treatment and therapy of, yes, cancer patients. The main character, Oleg Kostoglotov, has stomach cancer and is likely based on Solzhenitsyn's own experiences in a cancer ward and in exile. The other characters all represent a different form of cancer, which I assume probably are symbolic of their station in Soviet Russia. Other characters, such as the doctors and orderlies, also have ro...more
1 like · like · see review
From Wikipedia -
"The novel is set in a hospital in Soviet Uzbekistan in the 1950s. As the title hints, the plot focuses on a group of cancer patients as they undergo therapy. The novel deals with Political theories, mortality and hope, themes that are often explored either through descriptive passages or the conversations the characters have within the ward, which is a microcosm of the post Stalin Russian Communist regime."
I found Cancer Ward, although depressing to be a totally engrossing read...more
"The novel is set in a hospital in Soviet Uzbekistan in the 1950s. As the title hints, the plot focuses on a group of cancer patients as they undergo therapy. The novel deals with Political theories, mortality and hope, themes that are often explored either through descriptive passages or the conversations the characters have within the ward, which is a microcosm of the post Stalin Russian Communist regime."
I found Cancer Ward, although depressing to be a totally engrossing read...more
Ta książka w kilka godzin zmieniła moje życie. Czterysta czterdzieści cztery strony - przepadłam! Trzydzieści sześć rozdziałów - diametralna przemiana! Przeistoczenie! Metamorfoza!
Genialne, doskonałe, fantastyczne. Gdybym mogła, oceniłabym wyżej, znacznie wyżej. Coś wspaniałego. Coś, co przeczytam jeszcze wiele, wiele razy; coś, do czego będę wracać, gdy tylko zapragnę przenieść się... gdzieś daleko!
Do zupełnie innego świata. Do ponurego rosyjskiego oddziału onkologicznego: do umierających lud...more
Genialne, doskonałe, fantastyczne. Gdybym mogła, oceniłabym wyżej, znacznie wyżej. Coś wspaniałego. Coś, co przeczytam jeszcze wiele, wiele razy; coś, do czego będę wracać, gdy tylko zapragnę przenieść się... gdzieś daleko!
Do zupełnie innego świata. Do ponurego rosyjskiego oddziału onkologicznego: do umierających lud...more
Teton County Library Call No: F SOLZHENITSYN
Brie's rating: 5 stars
Solszhenitsyn creates a masterpiece here. It is set in the cancer ward of a provincial Soviet hospital in 1955. The relationships between the patients and the staff are explored. The most beautiful and melancholy one is between Oleg, a male patient (and former prisoner), and Zoya, a nurse at the clinic. The passage between them related through pages 165 and 173 is so moving and tender and true to the human yearning toward hope and...more
Brie's rating: 5 stars
Solszhenitsyn creates a masterpiece here. It is set in the cancer ward of a provincial Soviet hospital in 1955. The relationships between the patients and the staff are explored. The most beautiful and melancholy one is between Oleg, a male patient (and former prisoner), and Zoya, a nurse at the clinic. The passage between them related through pages 165 and 173 is so moving and tender and true to the human yearning toward hope and...more
Though he is best-regarded for his short works, Ivan Denisovich and Matryona's Home, Cancer Ward to this day remains my favourite of Solzhenitsyn's works. As semi-autobiographical as those two stories were, this novel expands on some of their themes and introduces a few new ones. At once polyphonic and immensely personal, the 'plot' if you will, is very thin. This is a novel about the collective experience of a ward populated by a group of non-characters. It is NOT a dissident or anti-Soviet wor...more
This is another book which I read a long time ago. I cannot remember all the details of it, but I do remember that I really enjoyed reading it. I would say this book may not be for everyone because it was assigned to me in high school and a lot of my classmates didn't care for it. But I loved it because for one thing, the character development is great, and also because it is very interesting over all. Of course, as the title suggests, it is somewhat depressing, but I enjoyed learning about each...more
In many ways, this is the same book as _In the First Circle_. In both books, plot is mostly tossed out in favor of dozens of slices of life from various people in a collective. It's difficult to identify a common tone of these snapshots, since each character has their own viewpoint and circumstances. A muddled grey maybe? This time the setting is a Soviet cancer ward rather than a Soviet gulag, but the cheerfulness of the stories is about the same.
After reading 750 pages of slice-of-life in _Fir...more
After reading 750 pages of slice-of-life in _Fir...more
A
The best Russian novel I've ever read, its better than "one day in the life of Ivan Denisovic".
it's unbelievably hard to imagine he has written this book out of his personal experiences, I don't mean it's an autobiography, but its realism comes in an extent that you feel sympathetic to its characters all along.
I'm not that much into political novels and this much praise for Solzhenitsyn is for his deep character building and story telling. nothing theatrical happens, In "one day ..." the charac...more
The best Russian novel I've ever read, its better than "one day in the life of Ivan Denisovic".
it's unbelievably hard to imagine he has written this book out of his personal experiences, I don't mean it's an autobiography, but its realism comes in an extent that you feel sympathetic to its characters all along.
I'm not that much into political novels and this much praise for Solzhenitsyn is for his deep character building and story telling. nothing theatrical happens, In "one day ..." the charac...more
I don't really know when exactly, but it seems like for a while American and English literature was fascinated with the idea of the totalitarian state, and there were some fanciful futuristic novels written about how horrible it would be if the government forced everyone to conform to various kinds of social norms.
They got nothin' on Solzhenitsyn. It's one thing to imagine how horrible a totalitarian state would be when one is living in a free country, and quite another to experience life under...more
They got nothin' on Solzhenitsyn. It's one thing to imagine how horrible a totalitarian state would be when one is living in a free country, and quite another to experience life under...more
My wife owned this book before we were married. It is still in "our" collection. I made the mistake of taking it to the beach when we were on vacation a few years after we got married. I warn any who would decide to read this book, do not take it as vacation reading unless you really enjoy having a bright day turn dark. This is a gut wrenching, but it is also elevating. Here, among the patients of Ward 13 and their families and hospital staff, the bluntness of cancer, of those who have survived...more
I haven't read Solzhenitsyn in years-- I was thoroughly impressed by The Gulag Archipelago as a teenager, and read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in college, but hadn't really read anything since.
Solzhenitsyn is up and down. When he writes about the horror and absurdity of life under the Stalinist regime, he is often transcendent-- and honestly, can you think of a worse place to be than a cancer ward in Stalin-era Uzbekistan? But when he tries to posit an alternative-- which he does, bec...more
Solzhenitsyn is up and down. When he writes about the horror and absurdity of life under the Stalinist regime, he is often transcendent-- and honestly, can you think of a worse place to be than a cancer ward in Stalin-era Uzbekistan? But when he tries to posit an alternative-- which he does, bec...more
The novel is more than a simple tale of Communist Russia. The questions it asks, on happiness, the value of life etc. are just as prominent and relevant in modern Western society as they where in Stalinist Russia.
This makes the book quite refreshing. It isn't like many novels on this period which are told to shock and fascinate the Western reader. It doesn't spend its time enumerating the ridiculous and cruel. Though some of those aspects are there they are presented more subtly, as a part of ev...more
This makes the book quite refreshing. It isn't like many novels on this period which are told to shock and fascinate the Western reader. It doesn't spend its time enumerating the ridiculous and cruel. Though some of those aspects are there they are presented more subtly, as a part of ev...more
This is my first reading of Solzhenitsyn and now I want to do more. This is a great allegorical masterpieces. It is both a deeply compassionate study of people facing terminal illness and a brilliant dissection of the 'cancerous' Soviet police state. Still this is a book that you can enjoy and get the complete experience even without the historical background of the country in which it is set, though you will get shocked to learn this book was banned by the Soviet government for many years!
It's...more
It's...more
1 like · like · see review
I read this for my book club and actually thought I read it ages ago, but hadn't. I found it engrossing. Each character gives a view of what was going on in the Soviet Union. The people who believed the system was working, those who took advantage of it, what life was like as an exile, how people related to each other while enduring hardship from both illness and their lives. I read it while traveling and pulled it out of my bag while riding in a shared shuttle from airport to the place we were...more
Cancer Ward is very good. Its style is bare and relatively simple, and there is little action. Nearly the entire novel takes place in the cramped confines of a hospital, and much of that within a single room. This is a novel about suffering, worry, and anger. Everyone has cancer. No patient knows how bad it might be.
Cancer Ward takes place in post-Stalinist U. S. S. R. during the 1950's. The patients of the ward are from all walks of life -- a privileged "personnel officer" who has an acute sens...more
Cancer Ward takes place in post-Stalinist U. S. S. R. during the 1950's. The patients of the ward are from all walks of life -- a privileged "personnel officer" who has an acute sens...more
In a hilarious piece of reverse synchronicity, I happened to attend a conference on "Patients as Leaders in Health Care" while I was in the middle of reading Alexandr Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward. At the conference, a smattering of Oregon health care professionals discussed how to involve patients and families in the decision-making processes at their medical groups and health plans; how to collaborate with patients and families to make the experience of treatment the best it can be; how to coordi...more
Solsjenitsyn is in deze roman op en top Russisch: hij voert tal van personnages op - patiënten, dokters en verplegend personeel van een kankerafdeling in een ziekenhuis, ergens in Centraal-Azië, in het midden van de jaren 50, in volle Sovjet-tijd dus - , hij neemt ruim zijn tijd om enkele van die personnages uit te diepen, en hij brengt via hen existentiële en maatschappelijk-politieke kwesties aan de orde. Zijn envergure is dus tolstoiaans, zijn thematiek eerder dostojevkiaans, zij het allemaal...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Solszhenitsyn creates a masterpiece here. It is set in the cancer ward of a provincial Soviet hospital in 1955. The relationships between the patients and the staff are explored. The most beautiful and melancholy one is between Oleg, a male patient (and former prisoner), and Zoya, a nurse at the clinic. The passage between them related through pages 165 and 173 is so moving and tender and true to the human yearning toward hope and love. Solszhenitsyn writes from the sensibility and depths of the...more
There's something sobering about this novel.
Weighing in at over 500 pages and easily the heaviest thing in my bag, Cancer Ward would seem to come to a definite conclusion, be it comforting or disturbing, by its denouement. But Solzhenitsyn offers nothing of the sort. Rather, we must revel in the beautiful ambiguity of this novel, and, in so doing, revel in the often frustrating, poignant, and somber ambiguity of life.
This novel is at once both a metaphorical critique of Soviet Russia as well as...more
Weighing in at over 500 pages and easily the heaviest thing in my bag, Cancer Ward would seem to come to a definite conclusion, be it comforting or disturbing, by its denouement. But Solzhenitsyn offers nothing of the sort. Rather, we must revel in the beautiful ambiguity of this novel, and, in so doing, revel in the often frustrating, poignant, and somber ambiguity of life.
This novel is at once both a metaphorical critique of Soviet Russia as well as...more
It was a dense book, slow to get through. I had a hard time remembering all of the characters as the author gave them two to three different names. The book was really written for those who are familiar with Russian history around the time of Stalin, but I still enjoyed it. The author portrayed the ups and downs of people living with cancer very well. Overall, I enjoyed the book. It was well written and translated.
"If we care only about 'happiness' and about reproducing our species, we shall mer...more
"If we care only about 'happiness' and about reproducing our species, we shall mer...more
Cancer Ward isn't what I would think I would have liked to read. I can't stand movies about sickness or hospitals, but this book was much different than the shallow rot on TV. It is about people, life, liberty, love, scars, fears, the causes of evil: all really interesting and worthwhile topics for a novel. And Solzhenitsyn takes the reader inside each patient and each doctor or nurse or orderly and brings you to see life through his or her eyes. It's like spending time inside each of their soul...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zoya is called 'Teddy Bear' in the English edition? | 1 | 6 | 30. März, 13:08 Uhr |
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was a Soviet and Russian novelist, dramatist, and historian. Through his writings he helped to make the world aware of the Gulag, the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system – particularly The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, two of his best-known works.
Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970. He was exiled from...more
More about Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn...
Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970. He was exiled from...more
Share This Book
2 trivia questions
More quizzes & trivia...
“A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy.”
—
124 people liked it
“The meaning of earthly existence lies not, as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering but in the development of the soul.”
—
51 people liked it
More quotes…
05. November, 09:35 Uhr
06. November, 01:11 Uhr