(no subject)

[hawkwing_lb]

One of the writers who helped shape my view of history, and of the twentieth century, has died.

Requiescat in pacem aeturnem, Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

I only ever read his Gulag Archipelago. Still, it had a profound impact.

Comments

[katallen.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't get a lot of news on Sundays... I hadn't heard :(

I read First Circle and August 1914 (and I think Cancer Ward) - and yes with the impact.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

He was the kind of writer who treated of awful things with a kind of terrible compassion. I'm not sure of any other way to put it. He had a clear and unflinching eye for horrors, and for humanity, and a talent for making his reader look both square on.

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Whenever I feel sorry for myself, I re-read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and then I realize I don't have anything worth complaining about.

Gulag Arkhipelag, Cancer Ward, and The First Circle -- all profound works. He was unmistakeable, and unrepentant, and unique.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Yeah.