Very grim, naturally, but very solid. While I understand some points may be debateable, the overwhelming ugliness of the system comes through very realistically. ( )

Very well written book, I am always surprised how well Russian translates into English. A detailed account of life in Communist Soviet Union under Lenin and later Stalin the arrests, purges, railway cars and the camps is an incredible story. It is almost unbelieveable that things were happening like this and at the other end of the globe lives were lived that people couldn't comprehend. ( )

This book brought Solzhenitsyn to the forefront of American consciousness, exposing the evil that lay behind the Stalinist police state of the Soviet Union. The author was in the Gulag, and writes out of his own experiences, as well as the experiences of others.

He really takes us deep into the heart of what it means to hear a knock on the door in the middle of the night, knowing that they have come to get you. From there, Solzhenitsyn takes us to the processing, the interrogation, the presentation of charges, the "trial", and finally sentencing. He sprinkles his narrative liberally with his own experiences, but even more the stories of others--people who would have long been forgotten, meaningless numbers on a page in some bureaucrats file, were it not for this book, where their stories are preserved.

Solzhenitsyn writes with a more deliberate tone of anger than what one finds in his other works on the prison system (One day in the Life of Ivan Densovitch and The First Circle.) This is a much more depressing book than either of those two.

This book is the Dachau of the Soviet Union. The camps are not preserved like many concentration camps were, and so this is the only memorial. And it is a damn good one.

This is hard to read, partially because of Solzhenitsyn's style (this is neither history nor literature, but attains to be both, and does not always succeed), but also because the subject matter is dark and depressing. But it is a fine memorial, and should be read, just as people should visit Dachau or Auschwitz if they ever have the chance, just to remind themselves that evil is alive and well in the world. ( )

This book makes me want to never complain about anything ever again.

The Gulag Archipelago details the suffering faced by countless millions in the U.S.S.R.'s prison and labor camp system. It is a book beyond review - Solzhenitsyn has profound insight, devastating wit, and a staggering memory.

From page 590:

"What about the main thing in life, all its riddles? If you want, I'll spell it out for you right now. Do no pursue what is illusory - property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade, and is confiscated in one fell night. Live with a steady superiority over life - don't be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn after happiness; it is, after all, all the same: the bitter doesn't last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing. It is enough if you don't freeze in the cold and if thirst and hunger don't claw at your insides. If your back isn't broken, if your feet can walk, if both arms can bend, if both eyes see, and if both ears hear, then whom should you envy? And why? Our envy of other devours us most of all. Rub your eyes and purify your heart - a prize above all else in the world those who love you and wish you well. Do no hurt them or scold them, and never part from any of them in anger; after all, you simply do not know: it might be your last act before your arrest, and that will be how you are imprinted in their memory!" ( )