Solzhenitsyn

I read "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" as a teen. It is is one of the reasons I never went through the "soft on communism" stage that some people never fully emerge from. Later, I read "The Gulag Archipelago," which was exhausting and almost demoralizing in its portrayal of the brutish Soviet government.
In part because of Solzhenitsyn I hated the monolithic Soviet state, as I now despise the monolithic Chinese state.
Solzhenitsyn spat in the face of this enormous evil.
Whatever his flaws, he was an intellectual giant.

On a lighter note, I took a European literature class in college. A week or so in the professor was discussing Turgenev or some other author and I made a reference to Solzhenitysn. He asked the class how many had read "Ivan Denisovich." I raised my hand. He asked if anyone had read any other of the author's novels. I raised my hand and cited "Archipelago"
After class, he caught me on my way out the door and said "I think you're going to do OK in here."
He never called on me again in class unless I raised my hand. I was the Golden Boy.
Easy A.
It pays to read, people.