One of the thing I’ve loved about the reading challenges over the last few years is the joy of finding new favourite authors. With his hard-hitting content, engrossing style and massive lengths, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has firmly endeared himself to me. This second to last book in the challenge, The First Circle is by this intrepid author and survivor of the Gulags. Let’s dig in.
Plot summary
Solzhenitsyn covers half a weekend in this 581-page tome. From Saturday night through to Monday morning, the reader lives with the prisoners of Mavrino special prison in late December 1949. The lives of particular prisoners are unfolded, as are the lives of prison officials and free workers. Weaving between these stories in that of Innokenty, a diplomat who risks everything to warn a friend of a trap laid for him. Will Innokenty be found and sentenced to the gulag? Or will his risk pay off and both he and his friend escape the living death of a Russian prison?
As a self-promoting side note, I was thrilled to be able to make the connection between the title of this book and my recent Dante reading. He came in handy after all!
The First Circle is heartrending in its ordinary pain
The cruel and inhumane life of Russian prisoners under communist rule is far from our ordinary experiences (thank the Lord). Solzhenitsyn could create a gripping narrative dealing only with this awful reality that plagued Russia for almost 80 years. Certainly, this is a key part of his work. But this isn’t what makes the book so heartrending. It’s the details of the ordinary little joys and sufferings of his characters.
He details the rending pain of the prisoners who get brief, supervised visits from their wives once a year, if they’re lucky. The pain of these separated spouses is cutting in it’s simple outlines. The loss of privileges such as a hot cup of tea before bed, or the ownership of a book are stark in their cruelty and relatability.
I often find that I can’t grasp what it means to go through extraordinary suffering. When I read about these things, it can feel very academic; a historical fact without attendant emotions. But when I read Solzhenitsyn…
I imagine my feet being cold and having no way to get warm.
I imagine seeing my husband only once a year and all pain of losing ten years of life with him to a prison sentence.
I imagine wanting a hot cuppa after a long day, but being given only cold water.
Now, think about those things happening again and again and again. Along with countless other indignities. It’s much easier to grasp, isn’t it? The pain and injustice that was visited on these people.
There is still humour and life in The First Circle
It’s not all gloom and doom. The prisoners hold birthday parties and Christmas celebrations. They find friends and dream of love. Riotous discussions of philosophy, art, politics and literature are enjoyed in the bunkroom at night. They share jokes and make each other presents with admirable ingenuity.
Solzhenitsyn creates a microcosm for you to study in this work. The struggle of the prisoners, but also of their warders are on display. Each side is humanised, so you can understand what motivates these characters from such a secretive time.
It’s a fascinating read, and I’ve no doubt that you will lose yourself in the layers of The First Circle.
[…] my opinion, the setting does not lend itself to this approach. Maybe I’ve just read too much Solzhenitsyn. But it feels incongruous to have comedic goose chases and detailed descriptions of fancy food at a […]