This story details a single day of Ivan Denisovich Shukhov’s life in a Soviet Labor camp. This middle-aged man desires to survive and continue living in order to return to his life. His perspective on his situation is: as long as he remains a hard worker and a valuable asset to the Soviet Union, he will serve out his ten-year sentence in the labor camp and then be declared free. The camp life, though, is not without its difficulties as they work every day in weather below freezing and with little to no food. They have to fight to stay warm, fight to get food, and fight to live. Everything about this life is harsh and unforgiving. He fights whether he can get out of the camp, or not.
While I was expecting more action, this was an extremely well written and engaging story. Even though the title is One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, I wasn’t expecting the book to be solely about the single day. It wasn’t even an extremely special day, nor a day that felt out of the ordinary. It felt a bit drawn out in the middle and a bit mundane, but the book does continue with enough pace to keep the reader engaged. In addition, this may have just been me, but it took me twenty pages to realize that the name the author refers to “Shukhov” is just Ivan Denisovich’s last name. So, this means his full name is Ivan Denisovich Shukhov. I may just be slow, but I was extremely confused for the entire beginning of the book as I had no idea who this Shukhov person was or why the author was referring to him as a centerpiece when the main character is supposed to be Ivan Denisovich. Other than that small bit of confusion, I really enjoyed the book. To me, the most interesting part of it all is the author who wrote it because it is one of the only books published that was permitted by the Russian government based on a true story from the camps. The author had quite literally experienced the labor camp and was thrown in after World War II. To end my point, this book was very good especially if you enjoy historical fiction and books about survival. Rating: four out of five.