Despite being the written by the man with the most impossible to spell last name, this book is actually quite cool. Its totally out of print according to amazon.ca and I had to get this picture from Wikipedia. This is a very short book (around 150 pages) that is literally the single day of a prisoner's term. It is based in a soviet work camp of the 1950's and demonstrates, with complete lack of context, how brutally they were treated. This is how prison was for a long time. Hard as hell. No one expected you to live through it and no one was responsible for legal concerns ie fair treatment etc. No TV either. It seems also to continue on with the theme of how we spend our lives. One of the ideas that is brought up is one of religion. The basic idea is that they should be glad that they are in prison since then they wont be tempted toward sin. Total bs in my opinion but its an interesting idea and one that many people probably believe. Very harsh and very real and quite scary but at the same time its a testament to human endurance yada yada yada. Well written and it seems to hit you on a fundamental level that many russian novels do. Seems like they have the secrets of the universe all pent up.
Thats it. 6 out of 7. Something to read but not life changing in my opinion.
Andrew
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