Rating: 
Summary: Great characters, frustrating finish
Review: Solzhenitsyn always gives wonderful characters in a dreadful situation, makes you aware of the horrors of Stalinism as they affect the characters, and flat out refuses to give you a satisfying ending. It's as if he is telling us it isn't that kind of a book - you aren't in Disneyland.As in The First Circle, Solzhenitsyn presents us with a group of Russian men living together in tough circumstances. The First Circle concerns political prisoners. Cancer Ward's characters are imprisoned by their tumors. The author himself had experience in both of these worlds, as a political prisoner for ridiculing Stalin, and as a cancer patient. The two main characters here are Kostoglotov (hero) and Rusanov (villain). Kostoglotov reports to the cancer ward as a former political prisoner who had been exiled to Siberia (of course, innocent, and a war hero). The huge scar on his face was given to him by ruffians in the prison camp when he had the courage to stand up to them in defense of their innocent victims. Rusanov is a higher-up in government. He has forced many a married woman to abandon her political prisoner husband and file for divorce, at the threat of losing her livelihood. He sent his best friend to Siberia because the man's family was sharing Rusanov's home, and Rusanov wanted it all for his own family. These are, as you may know if you are at all familiar with this author, typical Solzhenitsyn characters. The heroic good guy, victimized by Stalin's insanity, and the despicable bad guy who thrives under the Stalinist system. Without spoiling the ending for you, but just warning you, the final chapter is the one in which Kostoglotov has his chance to "get the girl" and live happily ever after, but...
Rating: 
Summary: An amazing book!
Review: This book shares with the world the way life truly was in 1950's Communist Russia. The characters are amazingly real and the plot is simple yet very interesting. As a person who doesn't enjoy most novels I can say that this one held me to the very last page!
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