Winesburg, Ohio (Sherwood Anderson, 1919)

This is a collection of inter-related short stories about a 19th century Ohio town told primarily through the eyes of a narrator who is a reporter for the local paper (George Willard). The book shows up on lists of great American novels, supposedly was considered quite ground-breaking for the manner in which it illuminated small-town life in a direct, simple, honest manner.

I just didn't like this book very much. I thought the characters were too flat (in general, I don't seem to enjoy short stories, much prefer longer vehicles where the author has a chance to develop characters, story lines, etc.). And the overall tone felt too negative - it's not a great discovery to recognize that people have faults, and in this short story setting there wasn't room to present a more balanced picture of the various characters.

Anyway, perhaps this was a great book and I missed the point, but so be it.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Alexander Solzhenitsyn, 1957-59)

Just a delightful read. I didn't realize the significance of this book as a ground-breaker in getting out information about the labor camps.

Solzhenitsyn's stuff, at least so far, has been excellent (previously read "The First Circle" and "August 1914").

Solzhenitsyn was in the Soviet military in World War II when he was arrested for writing a letter with an unflattering remark about Stalin. The story goes that he was needed in the heat of battle, but of course the political issues took precedence over military (like the commissars in Life and Fate).

So he had first hand knowledge of the camps.

This book is very short and is remarkable in its seeming unremarkableness. He literally describes one day in the life of a zek (Shukhov). He selects what would be considered a "good" day - presumably to show how horrible life was in the camps. The zeks are living and working in extreme cold with minimal nutrition. Shukov is on year eight of a 10-year sentence, but has seen enough to know that they might hang "another tenner" on him for whatever reason they like; or that if he survives his sentence, he has pretty much no shot of reconnecting with his old life (exile would be one possibility). We follow Shukov as he navigates the complex relationships among the guards, the personnel at the kitchen, fellow prisoners, etc. He makes out with a bit of extra food, manages to snag an extra puff off the butt of another prisoner's cigarette, barters for more cigarettes - just a great day. He had picked up a small piece of metal when out on work detail and was going to take it back to camp to fashion into a knife - highly risky situation, worrisome for the reader.

This book has virtually no moralizing; it is terribly simple. The 20th century in Russia (and many other places, I suppose) was pretty amazing.

A side note - Solzhenitsyn died a few months ago, and the mainstream media actually noted the event with some meaningful coverage. But this was completely dwarfed by the coverage of the death of a TV news anchor or news show host (his name was Tim Russert). I'm not sure exactly what Mr. Russert did, but he must have been a midget compared to Solzhenitsyn. Oh well, I guess trumping up the death of media types can only help convince the average consumer of the media's importance, to the benefit of future ratings . . .

Life and Fate (Vasily Grossman) (published in 1980s after KGB suppression in 1960)

I had looked forward to reading this for some time. The author's background alone made it almost certain that it would be interesting. Here is a guy who wrote articles for the Red Star (Russia's version of Stars and Stripes) from places like Stalingrad (excellent books discussed here and also here), and supposedly was a favorite among the front line soldiers.

While something of an insider within the Soviet system for some years, Grossman gradually recognized the paramount importance of freedom - a constant theme within Life and Fate. He put together an epic novel that covers the battle (from multiple perspectives, including House 6/1, the power station, etc.); the role of the commissars; the Russian home front from multiple perspectives; Russian labor camps; German prisoner of war camps; death camps for Jews; a tank squadron; and on and on. The participants (160 characters) are linked by family or other relationships for the most part.

Any number of these perspectives were highly interesting. The perspective that was perhaps most interesting was the '30s - even though the action in the book took place in the 1940s, all of the characters had been shaped by the awful occurrences in the Soviet Union during the 1930s (Stalin's famine in the early part of the decade, and the purges culminating in the later part of the decade). He did a great job with the Nazi death camp story; also folks like Krymov and Shtrum struggling in different ways to avoid knuckling under to the regime, at great personal cost. It really is hard to imagine.

Also fascinating is the environment in which he tried to get the book published - he thought there might be an opening after Stalin's death. But no such luck- way too much talk of freedom - all copies of the manuscript were confiscated. (Except a couple he had hidden away with trusted associates just in case; even then, publishing was delayed.) Similar to Doctor Zhivago in some ways.

I really liked the discussions among the "old Bolshevik" character and a Nazi officer comparing (and basically declaring to be equivalent) Nazi-style fascism and Soviet-style communism. (This no doubt didn't sit well with the Russian authorities.) Also a longish discussion attributed to a Tolstoyan in a Nazi prison camp regarding the nature of "good" - he articulated well how it is most genuine when spontaneous ("private, senseless, incidental kindness is in fact eternal"), and is dulled when institutionalized (it becomes just another business); I can't effectively summarize the discussion (or am too lazy to try), but it is worth thinking about.

Did it work? I would definitely say yes. Is it a wonderful read? Yes; one of the best I've been through lately.

Does it match "War and Peace" (to which some comparisons are made)? I don't think so, but also think an effort to compare is pointless. It is surprising that the book hasn't gotten more traction, but it is almost 900 pages long . . .

I would also recommend the discussion of the book that appears here.