I’ve read and re-read this book. Listened to it as an audiobook more times than I can count. At least once a month for past 10 years. Lately I’ve been getting to the last sentence and then I re-start the book, and listen to it like one might listen to a favourite piece of music.
I’ve wondered why, though.
Like noticing a limp when I walk.
And I think I now have seen a hint, a glimmer of what might be the reason:
Shukhov went to sleep fully content. He’d had many strokes of luck that day: they hadn’t put him in the cells; they hadn’t sent his squad to the settlement; he’d swiped a bowl of kasha at dinner; the squad leader had fixed the rates well; he’d built a wall and enjoyed doing it; he’d smuggled that bit of hacksaw blade through; he’d earned a favor from Tsezar that evening; he’d bought that tobacco. And he hadn’t fallen ill. He’d got over it.
A day without a dark cloud. Almost a happy day.
There were three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days like that in his stretch. From the first clang of the rail to the last clang of the rail.
Three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days.
The three extra days were for leap years.
. . . and I know you’ll have to listen as many times, perhaps, to connect just why that might be.
August 26, 2026
Still echos of this book enter into my day. Shukov survives and thrives there in that prison.
His smoking is a curiosity to me. No shame in it at all. It’s such an ostracized habit now a days… and rightly so. We know more and more about the long term effects of it.
It occurs to me, what in my life am I so attached to that I work as hard as Shukov does in “getting me some” ?
The foods I eat. Entertainment I consume.
His feeling superior to Fetyukov . . . the way he describes him and his actions, and yet in some ways they aren’t much different.
Unsupportable and curious Aspects >
Common through out is seen in a statement,
Cheat anyone you like in the camp, but not your boss (Tyurn in this case)
It isn’t stealing to swipe an extra bowl of Kasha at lunch time.
It isn’t cheating to have a restricted item > his “ten days”, a needle and thread
- a “ten days” is a little knife he keeps that he uses for tailoring
- He lends it out to Tsezar, who asked for it so he could slice some sausage meat from his parcel
Don’t eat with your hat on.*
Don’t spit the bones directly out onto the floor.
- Spit them onto the table, then later all bones into the floor
Eat fish eyes only if they are still in the head of the fish, not if they are floating alone in the bowl of soup.
Don’t stare at a man’s mouth when he smokes.
- Seen as obviously begging for the butt end
He deliberately soaked the floor near the camp guard’s Valenki (felt boots) knowing they’d be pissed off and tell him to rather just make the floor “look like” it had been washed by making it moist.
- Lesson> when you work for the knowing you did a good job, when working for fools you gave them “eye wash”
List of Characters >
Ivan Denisovich Shukhov (Prisoner S-854):
The protagonist. A 40-year-old working-class peasant serving a 10-year sentence on false charges of treason. His daily routine, resourcefulness, and endurance drive the story.
Andrei Prokofyevich Tyurin:
- The tough, fair, and respected boss (foreman) of Gang 104 who protects his men.
Pavlo:
- The deputy gang foreman who assists Tyurin and acts with kindness toward the men.
Captain Buynovsky (The Captain):
- A former naval officer who struggles to adapt to the humiliating and rigid rules of the camp due to his proud background.
Tsezar Markovich (Tsezar):
- A wealthy intellectual and filmmaker who receives food parcels and enjoys relative privileges working in the office.
Alyoshka (Alyosha the Baptist):
- Shukhov’s devout bunkmate who reads the Bible and maintains his strong spiritual faith despite camp hardships.
Fetyukov:
- A pitiful and degraded inmate who scavenges for cigarette butts and scraps, often disliked for his whining.
Kilgas:
- A cheerful, hardworking Latvian bricklayer and Shukhov’s trusted masonry partner.
Gopchik:
- A resourceful, youthful Ukrainian prisoner whom Shukhov treats with protective fondness like a son.
Senka Klevshin:
- A deaf prisoner who survived harrowing ordeals, including escaping concentration camps.
The Two Estonians:
- Inmates who stick closely together and share an unbreakable bond of mutual trust.
Running Down Vimy 