Cancer Ward

[zolasdisciple]

Cancer ward is an engaging novel about various men in various stations in life suffering from cancer in the heat of the russian revolution.One of the men is a government official, another a poor laborer, another still a sick yet ambitious young man. All of the 8 or so men in this ward suffer from some kind of tumor which is characterized by the hopelessness of their attitudes. Three women doctors due their best to cure the men, suffering themselves from ailments. This is an engaging book. Sad yet intruiging and full of political significance. I found represenative of the exclusive style in which Solzhenitsyn writes. A great book.

[Return Journey]

For me, Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward, was one tough book to read.
The characters are preoccupied with their own suffering with little sympathy for one another, which is kind of understandable under the circumstances!
But, as you learn a little of each of their backgrounds, you begin to see something of the hardship of life in Communist Russia. The camps, exile, families torn apart, shortages of everything. People having to decide whether to make a stand on what they know to be true or compromise to save their families.
I think this is a book people might not like to read but I think they should. This is not just about the past but confronts us now with how we choose to live.
It's a brilliant book and well worth reading, though it may leave you feeling a little uncomfortable.

[Scheherazade]

I should read this one.

I remember my father reading it when I was 6 or 7... Probably there is still a copy at my parents'.

[Helga]

I am very interested in this book now... I'll have to check it out.

[Paulclem]

I've read A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Solzhenitsyn which I found fascinating. I struggled with The Gulag Archipelago as there was a lot of details about the show trials, but I was much younger when i read it. (I struggled more with the word Archipelago at the time as I'd never heard it pronounced. I pronounced it ar-chip-el-ar-go - which is hilarious in a yorkshire accent).

I was aware of cancer ward, but had forgotten about it. I'll watch out for it again after your review.