Solzhenitsyn’s uniqueness rests on his deep political conservatism, married to a narrative genius akin to Tolstoy’s, and encompassing, like that earlier master, so many universes: from the horrors of the Romanian front in World War I, to the exaltations of falling in love in middle age, to the fantastic dinners in private rooms with masses of smoked salmon and sturgeon, bouillon, sour cream, and rowanberry vodka.
