In the First Circle, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Originally written in 1958, Solzhenitsyn had to whittle the book down and expunge some of the more inflammatory sections before the regime would let it be published in 1968.  Recently the full original version has been published in English. Long (740 pages), rambling, and densely written, it is a masterful evocation of the senseless, frustrating, vindictive, paranoid, and brutal Soviet system under Stalin. There is not a great deal of plot; instead the story is told through the individual stories of the prisoners, workers, and government officials involved in a “technology research” prison. The portrait of Stalin is wonderfully written.  One wonders how much of this is the talent of the translator and how much of the language is the author’s.  Not for the casual reader.

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