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Apr 02, 2011

Gavin rated it:

Dear Mr. Solzhenitsyn,

I am not a Russian scholar, not even in the armchair variety. But you have done something magical in ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH that eclipsed this reader's ignorance: you have transmuted what it was like to live a life day-in and day-out in much the same fashion. Think about it: Morning, the same as yesterday. Afternoon: the same as yesterday's afternoon. The night: yep, the same. And this made me yearn for a day when Ivan would awaken and see t More...

15 comments like (38 people liked it)

Sep 07, 2011

Mariel rated it:

Alexandr Solzhenitsyn's novel is over wrought like a fence. (It would have to be a barbed wire fence guarded by guards with hard-ons for injustice and big drooling trained guard doggies. One inmate stuck his tongue to the frozen pole on a dare and another can't get his head out because there is no butter.)

Heaven exists in the gulag in the shape of snow angels. Arms flapping hopelessly in the snow shapes of angels. We'll lay side by side and look up at the frost cracks in the ceiling More...

14 comments like (18 people liked it)

Oct 14, 2011

Brad rated it:

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 c More...

5 comments like (14 people liked it)

Jul 31, 2011

Brad rated it:

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 rea More...

3 comments like (13 people liked it)

Jun 13, 2008

Anna rated it:

My copy of the 1963 novel that won Alexander Solzhenitsyn the Nobel Prize is thirty-six years old, and it looks it--not just because it is dog-eared and the pages tinged yellow, but because the jacket copy is thick with Cold War fever.

This copy, for example, is "THE COMPLETE, UNEXPURGATED TRANSLATION BY RONALD HINGLEY AND MAX HAYWARD." One Day is "A SHATTERING PORTRAIT OF LIFE INSIDE STALINIST RUSSA.' It is also:

"the terrifying story of an almost unb More...

1 comment like (16 people liked it)

Oct 01, 2007

Eric rated it:

I hadn't noticed how much this book had affected me until I sat down to dinner. Bear with me. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch is a fascinating story in light of its historical context. While reading the book I had a hard time reminding myself that this story didn't take place in some nineteenth century prison, but in the nineteen fifties. The life that these men live is hard, grueling, and for that Ivan describes his day as a good one. One in three thousand six hundred and fifty three da More...

0 comments like (15 people liked it)

Aug 22, 2011

anca rated it:

* ma duce cu gandul la "amintiri din casa mortii//f.m.dostoievski" [inceputa, dar neterminata:], dar sunt stiluri diferite de scriere. ma bate gandul sa reincep "amintiri.." numai ca sa ii compar, sa simt pulsul fiecaruia si sa le percep perspectivele. dar inca nu sunt sigura. mai vad eu..
* suhov [sau ivan denisovici:] este tipul detinutului cu experienta, descurcaret, care incearca prin orice fel de mijloace sa'si faca viata de lagar cat mai usoara. mi'a placut ca in t More...

9 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 30, 2008

Dahlia rated it:

G gak suka perang, dan buku ini menegaskannya!!!
*cemberut*
Kegilaan manusia menjadi suatu yg lumrah2 saja bahkan mendekati normal. Bisa dibayangkan tidak, dalam buku ini yang mengambil latar belakang jaman perang antara Rusia dan Jerman, seorang tahananan di hukum 10 sd 25 tahun tanpa mengetahui apa sebenernya salahnya dia dan si penahan pun sama tidak taunya *wuidiiiih...usap keringat*

Bagaimana pun, dirikuw salut dengan perjuangan Ivan Denisovich menjalani hari2nya d penj More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2009

Christina Stind rated it:

Ivan Denisovich Sukhov is in prison - or rather, he is in a Siberian labour camp, placed there for a non-crime (being captured as a POW by the Germans, escaping and then telling the truth about it...). What this story is, is the account of one day of the three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days he has to spend in this place. It follows him from the morning reveille till he again lays in his bunk at night time.
What's amazing about this book is that the author has decided to write a v More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 06, 2008

Amang rated it:

Belum genap tiga hari kematian Alexander Isayevich Solzhenitsyn pada usia 89 tahun kubaca, ingatanku melayang pada buku ini. Buku tipis cetakan pertama 1976 dari penerbit Pustaka Jaya yang berjudul asli Odin den' Ivana Denisovitcha.

Sejak diterbitkan buku Solzhenitsyn pada tahun 1962 atas izin Nikita Khrushchev pengganti Stalin, novel pendek yang mendeskripsikan kisahan sehari dari 3.653 hari yang harus dijalani seorang tahanan bernama Shukov dalam kamp kerja paksa Gulag (periode Stal More...

21 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 03, 2009

Nicole rated it:

I loved it, even though I didn't give it five stars. I didn't give it five because at the end I wasn't blown away or something. The end just comes kind of natural like you'd expect, because it's the end of the day. And you know that Ivan is kind of like an animal now, and all he has are days and he doesn't think too hard about the future because if he did, he would go crazy. I've heard that Gulag is a very depressing story, this one is kind of a downer, but not like Gulag, probably. You end up l More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 17, 2008

Jeremy rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Kent rated it:

This semi-autobiographical work is based on the author's times in a Soviet Gulag. It was a very good read. I really liked the fact that Solzhenitsyn set the story during the course of a day like any other. Things happen to Ivan, but none seem like something spectacular or out-of-the-ordinary. In spite of this, the story does not lag, and it keeps the reader's interest. By not making it into an adventure tale or a jail-bust story or something of that kind, he made me feel some of the hopeles More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 31, 2008

Ryan rated it:

"It was a good day, a happy day..." This is from the conclusion of a book about a day in the life of a political prisoner in Stalin's notorious gulag system. Pretty subversive stuff, and got Solzhenitsyn in plenty of trouble of his own...

Not a long read at all, and will make you appreciate your pampered American life, whatever condition that may happen to be in... LOL... And, hey, I've been to Siberia -- It's not so bad!!

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 21, 2008

Judith rated it:

It seems mean-spirited and unkind to complain about a book of this nature: I know the author suffered greatly in the Siberian work camp prison, which is the subject of this Nobel prize winning book. I do sympathize but this book is boring and tedious. One day in one prisoner's life---that's the story. The subject matter is a fascinating one, but even his fame and significance couldn't rescue this book for me. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 25, 2011

Laura rated it:

Solzhenitsyn is a master. Somehow this one day, one single day, produces the sensation of years. And this one work camp realistically represents the accordion of camps in the Soviet Gulag system. And this one prisoner, Shukhov, breaks my heart.

One of my favorite paragraphs: "Shukhov looked up at the sky and gasped--the sun had climbed almost to the dinner hour. Wonder of wonders! How time flew when you were working! That was something he'd often noticed. The days rolled More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 27, 2011

Julio César rated it:

Son reveladoras las experiencias que Soljenitsin pone de relieve en este libro. Iván Denísovich cumple una condena de 10 años en un campo de trabajos forzados de la URSS. El libro nos hace evidentes la desazón e injusticia del régimen, por un lado; pero, evitando los "buenos" y "malos", nos coloca ante la perspectiva de que la "libertad", en esa URSS, tampoco significaba necesariamente algo mejor. Los pequeños disturbios entre presos y guardianes, los recuerdos del More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 01, 2009

Efrem rated it:

It must be 35 years since I first read this book, and it is no less powerful the second time. It recounts a day in the life of Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, a prisoner in one of Stalin’s slave-labor camps in Siberia. It is an almost minute-by-minute account, from the time Shukhov first opens his eyes in his upper bunk to when he finally lies down again late at night. In between are hours of labor in the brutal Siberian winter, where a temperature of -27 Fahrenheit is not cold enough to keep the pr More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 24, 2009

Karen rated it:

A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn tells the story of a man sentenced to ten years in a Russian work camp for being a spy, even though the accusation is false. However, Ivan is wise enough not to make waves or he might find another ten years put on top of his existing sentence. He also knows that extra years might be slapped on him anyway, because the Soviet would never trust him again and they wouldn’t want him returning to those “bad habits”. When, or if, he was rel More...

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Dec 26, 2011

Matt rated it:

This is the first I've read Solzhenitsyn. I know I am missing something due to this lack, and that is partly what motivated me to pick up this book and read it. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is the story of Ivan (I am not sure, at this point, if Ivan is a fictional or historical person -- but the accuracy of such a day I find it hard to deny) as he goes through a day in his life in a Soviet work camp, a Gulag.

The book is more of a reporting of what Ivan's day is like. I was ex More...

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Nov 23, 2011

Billie.henry rated it:

I am not sure if a sad bit of desensitization has befallen me or my generation (this from an avowed anti-electronic gamer and anti-other realistic virtual realities); but, survival accounts from the Holocaust, Khmer Rouge, Darfur, Kosovo and on and on seem to make this book’s description of forced labor pale. If it is a question of harsh environments and stoic resistance, this book is not really a recommended read.... And yet I do recommend it, and strongly. So, what I take from this book is not More...

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Nov 16, 2011

Madeline rated it:

The biggest thing I took away from this book was the decision that I will never, ever complain about how cold it is again. I thought I was desensitized to cold weather, being a Midwesterner, but then Solzhenitsyn came along and said, "Oh, you think you know cold? Bitch, in Soviet Russia, cold snaps you!" (sorry, like twenty of those jokes occurred to me while reading this and I couldn't resist) Seriously though, in this book, fourteen below qualifies as "not so bad."

More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 14, 2011

Brad rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Oct 02, 2011

Sam rated it:

This novel, as it says in the title, is all about one day in the life of Ivan Denisovich, sentenced to ten years in the gulag for escaping from a German camp (they assumed he was a spy). Solzhenitsyn follows him from waking up to going to sleep through the harsh working conditions, bribes and other features of camp life.

Score: 4.5 out of 5

I thought this was a very clever book, especially the format of focusing on just one day in Denisovich's life. It really emphasised how e More...

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Sep 19, 2011

Aaron rated it:

A heart-breaking and bleak account of a single day in the life of political prisoner Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, a man broken and abused within a Stalinist forced-labor camp. The moments of elataion are few and far between and are defined by small victories such as successfully hiding a half-piece of bread within his mattress or experiencing some sad measure of pride in his masonry skills as he constructs walls in sub-zero, Siberian temperatures. These moments are buoyed and made all the more signi More...

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Jun 20, 2011

Jennyreadsexcessively rated it:

I have been meaning to read more short works of Russian lit. to supplement one of my reading goals for the year, so while putting Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich on hold at the library I came across this book. Solzhenitsyn is a Nobel Prize winning author who brought attention to the Gulag--the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system. The novel is just as the title suggests, one day from reveille to bedtime for Shukhov who is serving out the final 2 years of his ten year sentence after being a More...

0 comments like

Jun 09, 2011

Jeruen rated it:

I know. I usually read contemporary literature, as I am currently in my contemporary literature phase, but I figured I mix and match things a little bit. So, as an initial attempt in revisiting the classical literature again, I picked this book up for a reading.

So why did I pick up this book? Well, back in high school, I remember that in my senior year, my English teacher was reading this book. I later learned that this book was banned in the Soviet Union, and censored, so the desire t More...

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May 16, 2011

James rated it:

Ivan Denisovich maintained his sense of dignity and autonomy in a number of ways during his eight years in a Russian gulag. In the morning, he woke up at the reveille instead of sleeping in. This gave him ninety minutes of “free-time” when he could do a number of things. He could use the time to earn money by sewing mittens out of old sleeve linings. He’d do favors for the richer zeks like bringing them their shoes in bed. He could spend the time sweeping the warehouse or collecting bowls in the More...

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Mar 03, 2011

Mark rated it:

As with many books that I associate with reading initially in 9th grade English class, I had a strong dislike of this book that stuck with me for over a decade. It seemed like one of those ones I should revisit, though, and a couple of years ago I did that. This was a good decision.

One man endures in a seemingly impossibly cruel environment, as he, at least, recognizes that it is the nail that sticks up that is hammered down. As social commentary based on the author's own experience More...

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Jan 21, 2011

Jeffrey rated it:

Most of all, I loved the triumph of the human spirit evident in this story of life in the gulag.
I'll include some excerpts from my reading journal of thoughts and lines that I liked.

**Spoilers**
p.35 “have a feel, nothing here except a bare chest with a soul inside it.” I admire Ivan Denisovich’s tenacity in maintaining his identity and holding onto it as something uniquely his. Earlier, he mentions each individual being different, though they all look the same. He refus More...

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