Reading Journal: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
I was recommended to read this book as part of a lent course at church. The course talked about weaving faith into everyday life, and gave as an example the way that Solzhenitsyn (and a couple of other Russian writers) do this in their work. They suggested several books including War and Peace, but I went for this one as it’s very short!
I found this book really uplifting. Yes, it’s about a guy who lives in a forced labour camp in some very cold part of Russia during the Stalin era. But it’s a happy book: the day that it describes is a happy day. Even in that situation, the main character has found happiness; and in simple things (work, bread) that many of us take for granted. How inspiring.
I loved the bits describing the inmates at work. The main character finds work fulfilling, as I do. For him, it’s a form of escape from camp life. It reminded me of the phrase “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work sets you free) on the gates at Auschwitz. In that context, sick; in the context of this book, it makes sense. The book also portrays the way the men develop a strong team spirit; they have to in order to survive. When they work, each has his different role, each of them makes a contribution.
I liked the way the book expressed faith. Not in a preachy way at all, but more in terms of what faith does for people. One of the characters is a Baptist. He tries to live out Paul’s writing that imprisonment helps him to focus on his faith; he’s quiet and happy. But I also found that the general attitude to imprisonment, materialism, and work was something that as a Christian I should really aspire to – even if it’s not expressed in Christian terms. All the better because it’s not, actually. I was challenged particularly by this, that maybe I should try to do the same in my writing. It’s certainly inspired a couple of the scenes in “Rain”.
I love the way this book shows humanity at its best and worst, and both faces are totally recognizable. I’ve never been in a labour camp but still, many of the details felt familiar. Parts reminded me of school: being given work details on detention, scrounging for crisps from other students or doing errands for them. Parts reminded me of work: one character gets a parcel from his family, and has to give bits of it to umpteen people along the way to ensure that he sees the parcel at all; at work, people like me do work that other companies pay for (I write software), and then a whole bunch of other people in the company (finance, account managers, marketing, CEO, …) take a cut of that money.
Yes, I loved this book and I have already recommended it to loads of people. In some way it’s probably changed my life.
Meta-note: I’ve read a few books recently (three in the last week!) and I thought it would be good to start keeping track of what books I read and what I think of them. Maybe even what I’ve learned from them. This isn’t like writing book reviews - if you want to know what any of these books are about and whether they’re any good, you’ll probably find loads of proper, objective reviews online. These are the exact opposite – this is what the book said to me.
Of course I reserve the right to give up posting these when I’ve got bored with it and not to mention any titles I’m embarrassed about.
I found this book really uplifting. Yes, it’s about a guy who lives in a forced labour camp in some very cold part of Russia during the Stalin era. But it’s a happy book: the day that it describes is a happy day. Even in that situation, the main character has found happiness; and in simple things (work, bread) that many of us take for granted. How inspiring.
I loved the bits describing the inmates at work. The main character finds work fulfilling, as I do. For him, it’s a form of escape from camp life. It reminded me of the phrase “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work sets you free) on the gates at Auschwitz. In that context, sick; in the context of this book, it makes sense. The book also portrays the way the men develop a strong team spirit; they have to in order to survive. When they work, each has his different role, each of them makes a contribution.
I liked the way the book expressed faith. Not in a preachy way at all, but more in terms of what faith does for people. One of the characters is a Baptist. He tries to live out Paul’s writing that imprisonment helps him to focus on his faith; he’s quiet and happy. But I also found that the general attitude to imprisonment, materialism, and work was something that as a Christian I should really aspire to – even if it’s not expressed in Christian terms. All the better because it’s not, actually. I was challenged particularly by this, that maybe I should try to do the same in my writing. It’s certainly inspired a couple of the scenes in “Rain”.
I love the way this book shows humanity at its best and worst, and both faces are totally recognizable. I’ve never been in a labour camp but still, many of the details felt familiar. Parts reminded me of school: being given work details on detention, scrounging for crisps from other students or doing errands for them. Parts reminded me of work: one character gets a parcel from his family, and has to give bits of it to umpteen people along the way to ensure that he sees the parcel at all; at work, people like me do work that other companies pay for (I write software), and then a whole bunch of other people in the company (finance, account managers, marketing, CEO, …) take a cut of that money.
Yes, I loved this book and I have already recommended it to loads of people. In some way it’s probably changed my life.
Meta-note: I’ve read a few books recently (three in the last week!) and I thought it would be good to start keeping track of what books I read and what I think of them. Maybe even what I’ve learned from them. This isn’t like writing book reviews - if you want to know what any of these books are about and whether they’re any good, you’ll probably find loads of proper, objective reviews online. These are the exact opposite – this is what the book said to me.
Of course I reserve the right to give up posting these when I’ve got bored with it and not to mention any titles I’m embarrassed about.
Labels: Reading
posted by tomdg at 3:05 AM
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