Gulag Archipelago

[curlyqlink]

I'm wondering how this book's literary reputation has fared over the years. I know it was considered the literary masterpiece du jour when it appeared; something I never understood because it because I frankly found it unreadable. It seemed no more than an angry diatribe, its author misguidedly fond of listing things in a desperate effort to convince his readers of something they already knew. Namely that the Evil Empire was evil. I only managed to get through the first couple of chapters, and my main impression was never having seen so many exclamation points per paragraph anywhere outside of a Cosmopolitan article.

[bounty]

curly, i dont know about the "misguidedly" part---knowing that an empire is evil is one thing, knowing intimate details from a survivor of it is another. i wholeheartedly applaud both the concept and the effort. however, i found it a very difficult read also---i would have thought the subject matter would have absolutely captivated me but it was a chore to get through...

[Idril]

It seemed no more than an angry diatribe, its author misguidedly fond of listing things in a desperate effort to convince his readers of something they already knew. Namely that the Evil Empire was evil. I only managed to get through the first couple of chapters, and my main impression was never having seen so many exclamation points per paragraph anywhere outside of a Cosmopolitan article.

I felt a little of that when I read it too. He survived a horrible experience and letting people know about what was going on is a very laudable thing to do and he has every right to be bitter about what he went through...however, the tone of it struck me an deeply personal, like you were sitting at a coffee shop with your friend venting and ranting and while it's interesting to a point, there comes a time when you want the information without the emotion, when the simple stating of facts and experiences becomes more powerful than emotional ranting. I don't need to be told by the author that these things are horrible, that is very plain, I don't need to be constantly reminded about how barbaric it was or how corrupt it was, again, that is very plain. Now I know that is going to sound incredibly callus and unsympathetic but the facts alone speak for themselves, the bitterness and the sarcasm, the endless stream of names and cases that just keep pointing out the same thing, get a little tedious after awhile and begin to distract from the horrors he is attempting to describe. I did finish Volume one and got half way through Volume 2 before I just couldn't take it anymore, it was an odd mixture of being too depressed by the stories to go on and getting so tired of his tone that I couldn't take one more page. I do hope to go back and finish off that last half of volume 2 some day...when I've had a little more distance.

Again, I don't begrudge him his anger and bitterness, he has every reason to be so...I just found it a little off putting and as I said, distracting. I actually think his A Day In the Live of Ivan Denisovich is, in many ways, a more powerful account of the camps and of course, much more succinct.

[johann cruyff]

A Day In the Live of Ivan Denisovich is far more popular with a reason - it's shorter,and I think the writing is much better. I must admit I haven't read the entire Gulag Archipelago though,just a few parts - and I didn't really mind the emotional tone of it,but it somehow seemed too dense - then again,why would reading a true account of a Gulag be any more interesting and lightweight than having been there?