Status Updates From Το μηδέν και το άπειρο

I seem to be bouncing from one sort of bottle episode/locked-room mystery to another: first the isolated island of And Then There Were None, then the hostage episode of Bel Canto, and now a totalitarian cell. Huh.

It has been forty years since I first read this one. I’m curious how differently it will hit me now—age almost 60, and in a post-Soviet world.

I knew I was missing “something” at page 50. I did a little research into this book and, upon learning the authors’s intent, went back to the beginning and restarted with fresh eyes. Written in the mid-40’s, this novel shows how political ideology can supersede personal morals and take on a life of its own. Fascinating in the context of historic Russia and surprisingly relevant in current US politics.