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Position:Home>Books & Authors> Solzhenitsyn - a literary assessment?Question: Solzhenitsyn - a literary assessment!? While the recent obituaries have been full of detail about his life and public pronouncements, I have found very little about the actual quality of his novels!. They were big in the seventies, I know, but then faded from public view!. Can anyone provide an assessment, or point me towards one!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I dunno, did he play for the eigles!? I think he was a defensive guard!. Yeh, a real good guard!. Www@QuestionHome@Com The most commonly read these days is probably One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich!. It's a fine place to start, I think it was the first that I read a million years ago!. Cancer Ward is also fairly well known, and well worth reading, but my personal favorite is The First Circle!. It details the lives of a group of prisoners who occupy one of the "elite" camps where they are fed well, decently clothed and not subjected to hard labor!. By the end of the book several, well aware of the consequences, have become unable to support the system under which they live!. It's a hell of a story, with a hell of a message!. It's where I most recommend starting!. If you fall madly in love with his writing and feel very committed, then check out the Gulag Archipelago Trilogy!. I did, but I haven't in years!. It's worth it, but it's a challenge!. Do read him though, at least some of him!. He's awfully good and tells stories that most cannot!. ***Edit) I'm sorry, I'm guilty of something that i complain of in others!. I really didn't read your question!. Having now done so I'm still going to let my answer stand, and add a question of my own!. If you are interested in Solzhenitzyn, why don't you just read him!? Why do you need a literary assessment!? http://en!.rian!.ru/analysis/20080806/1158!.!.!. Not exactly what you're looking for!. Most assessments are more political than literary which is reasonable, but somewhat unfair!. ***Edit) OK, I was a kid in the 70's and I read them on my own with no idea of any particular hype!. I've always admired both his writing and the stories he told, and not because anyone told me to either!. I read alone!.Www@QuestionHome@Com http://en!.wikipedia!.org/wiki/Aleksandr_S!.!.!. americans are so funny, especially the fans of egg-chasing you have to wear a helmet and all that armour cos the ball really hurts if it hits you on the skinWww@QuestionHome@Com All I can say is he is one of the best Russian writers of the 20th century!. August 1914 is a superb book about the impact of WW1 on Russian society and I would start with that one!.Www@QuestionHome@Com He was a marvelous literary craftsman!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |