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I posted at 子女教育 the following review of a great book when I saw an ABC reader and her illiterate father missed the key point. It got deleted in 10'. =================================================== 9 of 10 people found the following review helpful: The Sickness of Communism, May 21, 2002 By Jeffrey Leach (Omaha, NE USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME) This review is from: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch (Signet Classics) (Paperback) "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, isone of those books that look deceptive. It isn't that long, and it's alittle mass-market paperback that would blow away with the wind. Eventhe cover design really doesn't convey what lies inside. What we havewith this book is a worthy contribution to the annals of Russianliterature. Solzhenitsyn finds himself in the ranks of Tolstoy,Turgenev, and Gogol with this gripping tale of the Stalinist Gulagsystem. Solzhenitsyn went on to write a massive indictment of the Gulagsystem in a three-volume work called, "The Gulag Archipelago."Solzhenitsyn won a Nobel Prize for Literature and found himself exiled,forcibly, from the Soviet Union for his writings. He returned to Russiaafter the collapse of Communism. As the title indicates, the story covers one day in Ivan Denisovich'sten-year prison sentence. Ivan is a peasant who runs afoul of theauthorities when the Germans capture him during the war. When he findshis way back to the Soviet camp, the authorities charge him withtreason and sentence him to the camps. Denisovich is luckier than manyof his fellow convicts; they are serving 25-year sentences. This day isbetter for Ivan than most; he ends up getting a better work assignment,a member of his squad gets a parcel loaded with food, and Ivan managesto get extra food rations. He even scores some tobacco, his onlyweakness. Ivan lives day by day; it is the only way he can survive the camps.What is most shocking about this book is the matter-of-fact way inwhich the story is told. All of life is reduced to acquiring food andstaying warm. Following the rules and avoiding punishment is just asimportant. Woe to the man who ends up in the guardhouse cells for tendays. I was nauseated by how hard Ivan worked on the power plant.Here's a guy who is a prisoner, forced to lay bricks in the middle ofwinter, and he is busting his hump to do a good job. But in a way, thiscan be uplifting, too. Ivan refuses to give up to the brutality of hiscondition. Every day is a struggle, but Ivan never grouses or causesproblems. He accepts everything camp life throws at him and triumphs.You get the impression that Ivan is going to make it out of the camp nomatter what. This is an excellent book that exposes the real face of Communism. Nomatter how brutal Communism is (or was) as a system of government, itfailed to crush the spirit of humanity. I recommend reading this bookin conjunction with Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon," another bookthat exposes the sickness of Communism.