Cancer Ward

Rating:
Summary: Genius
Review: Captivating and brilliant. A story of suffering and redemption in the great tradition of Russian literature.

Rating:
Summary: A Matrushka Saga
Review: Everyone is familiar with those dolls within dolls within dolls that are so prevalent in historical Russian culture. This tale reminds one of such a set. There is the outer doll, the Soviet state in all its uncaring, soul-numbing, politically drenched stasis. Then there is the next doll, the Cancer Ward itself, a pitiful place where harried doctors and nurses attempt to attend to patients under the most primitive of conditions. Finally, the last doll is the group of individuals that stay at the Cancer Ward - their lives.

This is a story about hope - hope that one can survive the system, hope that the disease can be conquered, hope for a future with friends and the things one values. In his usual way, the author explores all facets of Soviet socity with a particular emphasis on the world he knows best - the world of the zek, the political prisoner. The reflections of Oleg and his determination to survive shine through the utterly gray and workout Soviet background. It is this dramatic accentuation that makes the word pictures so moving. For despite all the reasons to give up, he endures. This is a quiet novel but a deeply moving one, so different from the historical works that followed.

Rating:
Summary: A Matrushka Saga
Review: Everyone is familiar with those dolls within dolls within dolls that are so prevalent in historical Russian culture. This tale reminds one of such a set. There is the outer doll, the Soviet state in all its uncaring, soul-numbing, politically drenched stasis. Then there is the next doll, the Cancer Ward itself, a pitiful place where harried doctors and nurses attempt to attend to patients under the most primitive of conditions. Finally, the last doll is the group of individuals that stay at the Cancer Ward - their lives.

This is a story about hope - hope that one can survive the system, hope that the disease can be conquered, hope for a future with friends and the things one values. In his usual way, the author explores all facets of Soviet socity with a particular emphasis on the world he knows best - the world of the zek, the political prisoner. The reflections of Oleg and his determination to survive shine through the utterly gray and workout Soviet background. It is this dramatic accentuation that makes the word pictures so moving. For despite all the reasons to give up, he endures. This is a quiet novel but a deeply moving one, so different from the historical works that followed.

Rating:
Summary: cancer ward
Review: Excellent novel relating life in a Soviet cancer ward. Provides a sympathetic view of the lives of diverse individuals in the post-war Soviet Union. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Accurate depiction of the world of the cancer patient
Review: Having just finished reading it for the third time, I believe that Cancer Ward is a very fine novel, rich at many levels: in its depiction of Soviet provincial society in 1955, a poor society just emerging from Stalinism; in its portrayal of many separate characters (doctors, nurses, patients, hospital workers) in that society, many of whose lives have been permanently damaged by the terror and the GULAG, but in different ways; and, as I know from personal experience, in its depiction of the isolated world of the cancer patient, from which the rest of society is seen dimly, as though through dirty glass. In spite of all medical progress, the basics of this world have not changed much in 50 years: the core treatments are still surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, and the side effects both long and short term can still be brutal.

The ending of the book will disappoint those who want a happy ending, or just an ending with all the loose ends tied up. In real life, though, loose ends usually stay loose. My thought is that Solzhenitshyn intended the reader to understand that for the characters and the society who are so damaged by the past there can be no happy endings; the best they can hope for is to continue from day to day, grasping at whatever happiness briefly comes their way.

Rating:
Summary: This is a deeply moving work, one of Solzenhitsyn's best.
Review: Having read a good bit of Solzhenitsyn's books, I can safely say that this is the pinnacle of his work. It simultaneously examines how people cope with the loss of freedom (to the Soviet state and the cancer ward), with the death that surrounds them, and with their own mortality. Through the whole work, too, through death and triumph over disease, runs Solzhenitsyn's recurring theme of the survival and growth of the human spirit under terrible conditions, seen as the main character and those around him realize former errors and deficiencies of character and seek to redeem themselves by doing good for others. I would highly recommend this book to all readers of Solzhenitsyn and, really, anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Read the more informed view of Conway A heroic work
Review: I want to recommend a review on this site by Lloyd A. Conway as outstanding. It says far more about the book than my brief review will.
I found this to be Solzhenitzyn's finest fictional work. It is written with power and conviction. The optimism displayed by the hero in an apparently hopeless situation supposedly mirrors that of the author in his own fight with and triumph over cancer. The tremendous will and courage of Solzhenitsyn which is part of the legend he made with his own life and writing gives too a sense of the heroic in this work. In adversity in suffering in the depths of a hellish world his heroes find a strength and humanity which is incredible.
I recommend this work above all for its putting the reader in touch with a kind of heroic spirit a kind of courage which our civilization now needs if it is to overcome the forces of terror now working to destroy it.

Rating:
Summary: It almost succeeds.
Review: In all great works of literature, such as Doctor Zhivago, there is a sweet aftertaste that we could still relish on our lips long after we have finished the story, or long after we have entered into the lives of the characters. This is in spite (or rather because) of the grueling events that we are happily condemned to share (as readers) with the characters of the story--in the course of their lives. Especially in the case of Doctor Zhivago, the story ends in a way that Transcendence (or whatever you may call it) is very apparent to us. It makes us feel that hardships and sufferings are of little or no significance after the struggle. Vital as they are to our affirmation of life, they have to be surmounted in the end. Yes to Life: this feeling of ultimate triumph will now have to reign supreme over everything.

It is sad to say that this is not the case with Solzhenitsyn's novel, Cancer Ward. Here the author does not carry us to a leap into transcendence. I may sound brutal, but I will honestly say that the author had written this book out of spite. In the conclusion of the book, Oleg Kostoglotov, the book's most anguished protagonist (supposedly the symbol of enormous suffering in the Soviet Era), leaves on a train, diseased both physically and spiritually, and the book's final line reads: "An evil man threw tobacco into Macaque Rhesus' eyes. Just like that."

Although my heart goes out for him, I know the truth inside the heart of the author just as well.



Rating:
Summary: File under great literature
Review: In Cancer Ward, Solzhenitsyn tells the story of a memorable cast of diverse characters, many of them presumably drawn from his own experiences in such a hospital wing. The book focuses largely on two characters, Kostoglotov, the ne-er do well exile, and Rusanov, the party member who works as a mid-level official in Personnel. Some of the most interesting passages concern their verbal disputes in which the rest of the cancer patients take sides. Cancer Ward is not political in the way a book like Animal Farm is, but few could miss the way Rusanov's naivete and loyalty is used to mock him. In spite of this, the book is timeless because it deals with the very personal struggles of individuals, which allows the reader to identify easily with the characters. Cancer Ward is thought-provoking and is definitely worth reading, although one should probably read it by the fire and not on the beach.

Rating:
Summary: Overwheliming
Review: It's not as if the protagonist had only a disease to battle. He is also facing a culture, a souless state that seems to devour all who dwell within its guarded borders. What is fascinating is the world within a world within a world. First, there is the Soviet regime, then the Cancer Ward and finally the individuals within this ward - three concentric rings.

Solzhynetsin again provides the reader with an in-your-face portrayal of the Soviet state but his primary mission is the exploration of the humanity of people in distress. If there is one common theme it is universal hope - hope for freedom, hope for recovery, hope for the future.

Oleg stands out in all his suffering and good humor. His portrait, against a background of drab, cold, gray and utterly barren physical, emotional and spiritual landscapes, is a tour de force of sympathetic semi-autobiographical writing. Who can forget the pitiful state of Soviet medicine against the care of the nurses and doctors. Again, Solzhynetsin the storyteller and Solzhynetsin the seer unite in an unforgettable portrayal of Russia and Russians.