One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
First Published in 1962
I can't immediately recall a better display of character development in less than 150 pages before. Ever. S.E. Hinton tried with The Outsiders, but The Outsiders and One Day In the Life are on completely different levels, not to mention languages, times, motifs, genres and literary stages.
I didn't know much of anything about this novel before I read it. It was something I picked up at a Half-Price books in Austin several years ago. I was cleaning off my desk the other day and re-found it, pocketed it, and haven't really been without it since. It's even caused me to stop playing Borderlands for a day or so.
One Day In the Life is really one day in the life. The original narrative. And I've got to tell you: in this novel, my good buddy Sasha Solz is as much in love with the colon ( this one: : , not the poop chute) as I am. Constant usage. I like that. It fits where the translator put it, and although it's not always 100% mechanically correct, dammit: it works.
I have no idea why that giant white block is there, and I really don't care.
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