Monday, August 04, 2008

Solzhenitsyn

I received the first volume of the Gulag Archipelago as a gift from my mother more than 3 decades ago. Reading that book was truly one of the decisive moments of my life. Ivan Denisovich and Cancer Ward came later, then the second and third volumes of Gulag, and with them I joined the millions of people through the free world and the former Soviet Union who were called to higher and clearer moral understanding by this great prophetic figure. As a writer, Solzhenitsyn was very far from flawless. As a thinker, he suffered from more than the usual ration of quirks and blind spots. But as a man, he was a hero, and as a witness, his fame will be undying. 

08/04 02:54 PM