Drags a bit in the middle, mostly because of the huge ammounts of information that Solzhenitsyn is using to establish things as the norm instead of just exceptional cases...but has all the hallmarks of a true story of life (and an out of control power aparatus); there's no need to insert extra pathos - things are terrible enough for just being.

Very eye opening account of the horrors of the Soviet Union. While it was hard to keep up sometimes, Solzhenitsyn gives a detailed description of what happened to him and millions of other poor souls who were forced into prison for often as little as disagreeing with the government or having an accident at work. I recommended this book to anyone interested in Soviet history, politics and history in general.

I didn’t retain everything as well while listening as I would have reading, but the book is an incredible accomplishment with amazing and terrifying stories. One that stuck with me was how the stress of looking over your shoulder was so exhausting, people were practically giddy once they were arrested and it was over.

It's been a while since I last picked up this book and it has become one of the books that I always plan to finish but probably never will. It gives a deep insight into life in the Soviet Union under Stalin, but the statistics, the descriptions, the details assault the reader with so much horror and despair that I found it (so far) impossible to finish even book one in the series. In short: I think it's an important book that is definitely worth reading - if you can bring yourself to read through it.

Obviously a significant, impactful book and a fascinating read, probably for anyone but certainly for people like me who are still mostly unfamiliar with Russian history and culture. Necessary perspective on how corrupt a government can get and how good we really have it in the modern Western world in comparison (though Solzhenitsyn might disagree himself).

Despite this book's value and even though I'm glad to have read it, I give it a 4/5 just because I feel it could have been even more effective and reached more people if it were edited down and reorganized a bit to reduce repetition and emphasize the general descriptions over the long strings of anecdotes.