One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn · first published 1963
56% recommend44% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Short, plainly told novel of one prisoner's day in a Soviet labor camp, showing the gulag as a society with its own rules and the human spirit under pressure. A gentler entry point than The Gulag Archipelago.
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…Jouvenel, "1984" by George Orwell, "The State" by Anthony de Jasay, "Sketched With the Quill" by Andrzej Bobkowski, "My Correct Views on Everything" by Leszek Kolakowski, "The Captive Mind" Czesław Miłosz, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, "The House of the Dead" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, "Conversations with an Executioner" by Kazimierz Moczarski, "Diary 1954" by Leopold Tyrmand, "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail…
on “Ask HN: What's one book that changed your life?” ↗A few tips: ”One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich” by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ”Things fall apart” by Chinua Achebe, ”Wide Sargasso sea” by Jean Rhys, poetry by Anna Achmatova, ”My life in the bush of ghosts” by Amos Tutuola, ”A personal matter” by Kenzaburo…
on “The Bookish Life: How to Read and Why” ↗…listening to the two EconTalk podcast episodes relating to the book. http://www.econtalk.org/kevin-mckenna-on-solzhenitsyn-the-so... http://www.econtalk.org/kevin-mckenna-on-characters-plot-and... Also, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is a much shorter, more easily digested, novel by Solzhenitsyn.
on “The Sharashka Phenomenon (2011)” ↗Let's not forget about the pleasures of communism. "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Alexander Solzhenitsyn might be a worthwhile read.
on “Brutality of Life Reading List” ↗Try reading "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Solzhenitsyn - an extraordinarily straightforward wee book.
on “2010 Nobel Prize in Literature Awarded to Mario Vargas Llosa” ↗His 4th point reminded me of Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Both made a great impression on me. When discussing them with my wife she observed that they didn't give you what you ought to think and feel. They just showed you and…
on “C.S. Lewis on Writing” ↗Looking at my GoodReads favorites that qualify as classics, these are the ones that I enjoyed the most: - Anything by Jack London - Anything by Ernest Hemingway - *One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich* by Solzhenitsyn - *The Fixer* by Barnard Malamud - *Northwest Passage* by Kenneth Roberts - *To Kill a Mockingbird* by Harper Lee - Anything by Nikolai Gogol - Short stories by Guy de Maupassant…
on “Ask HN: classic literature recommendations?” ↗One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is a slightly lighter (fiction, but reality-based) version of Gulag Archipelago, also by Solzhenitsyn. Might be a good entry if the length of Gulag Archipelago scares you away.
on “Twitter allegedly deleting negative tweets about United Airlines incident” ↗I've recently read Solzhenitsyn's "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich". IMHO, this novel does a very good job at capturing one key aspect of gulag; It was not just all about "oppressor vs oppressed", but was a complex society with a particular set of rules. If you likes…
on “The Writer Who Destroyed an Empire” ↗…place? But I had simmilar moments as well :) I did hear that SSSR does still have fans in some western countries, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn has really good antidodes against that, I myself am a fan of "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich"
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?” ↗10 years ago - The Gulag Archipelago (Abridged) or One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich : Solzhenitsyn 20 years ago - Meditations : Marcus Aurelius 30 years ago - Zen Flesh Zen Bones : Paul Reps Any time: Anything by: Robert Sapolsky, John Gottman, Early Jonathan Lethem novels, Peter…
on “Ask HN: What book would you recommend to your younger self?” ↗…Dale Carnegie Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman And some extra credit: Maps of Meaning by Jordan Peterson Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert Sapolsky One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
on “The Philosophy of Anger” ↗…Koontz - Strangers Dean Koontz - Watchers James Scott Bell - How to Write Best-Selling Fiction Yudhanjaya Wijeratne - The Salvage Crew (fn FANTASTIC!) Then a classic like: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich While a bit over-produced, this one was fantastic. Shame they didn't do the whole series. Neil Gaiman - The Sandman Rob Grant - Red Dwarf Steven Pressfield - Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t An Audible…
on “Ask HN: What podcasts do you listen to?” ↗One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - its about a russian soldier's life in a soviet labor camp and his fight for survival. Great read.
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗1. One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich 2. The Soul of a new machine
on “Ask HN: Please name two of your most favorite books.” ↗