The Transatlantic Book Club discussion

I was looking forward to reading this, and was dismayed to find when I began it that I'd picked up an abridged version and that it was too late to get hold of complete one if I expected to keep up with the schedule. December was kind of crazy, and I was away from home for most of it.
I found it a good read, the parts of it included in the edition I read, because the English was a pleasure to read (I have no idea how close it was to the original); the content, of course, was quite heavy going. In all honesty, I feel that I should read a complete edition of the work, and learn more about the period in question, before venturing an analysis of it, but there's no time for that at present, so all I can say is that I wish I had read it sooner, and plan to read it again (in full, next time). I had a copy of Cancer Ward when I lived in Scotland, which was gripping but not nearly as good a translation as this; unfortunately it was a casualty of my somewhat chaotic return to the U.S. and hopefully has been adopted by a postal worker somewhere.

I have the full version, but haven't had chance to get very far with it. I will be continuing with it soon though. I feel much the same about it - heavy going, but a pleasure to read. I'm glad you rated it so highly - I was a little worried that it was a bit too heavy a read for here. I suppose it's bound to be heavy because Solshenitsyn sets out to document everything he possibly can, but with hindsight I might have hunted out one of his novels instead. So far I've really enjoyed his humour, very dry and wonderfully ironic, which goes some way to lightening the sheer slog of getting through the subject matter. I think one of the last bits I read was where he talks about his own behaviour during time as a military officer, and shows us how anyone might act in the same way as the 'Organs' if we were in their position. I really admire his honesty and his understanding of human nature. Throughout what I have read so far I have been struck by how well he communicates how it feels to be in any given situation, and why people act as they do. Faced with his account, there is no need to ask why more people didn't resist arrest, or flee, or organise against the state.