When I read of the death of one of my favorite authors, memories rushed my mind and heart remembering his book which I read 46 years ago....One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
was a book that changed my thinking and enlarged my world view in a profound way. Though quite trivial in most of my pursuits at age 19, I did love to read and One Day In the Life was the Book of the Month Club's offering. An unassuming little book physically, it was to become a classic, earning the author a Nobel Peace Prize in Literature in 1970.
Both this work and Gulag Archipelago were sobering, eye-opening, sad, depressing, truthful and shameful. I learned of the suffering inside Communist prison camps via this brilliant author who knew first-hand of such a horrific experience. While he said we cannot really understand that which we have not endured, I do believe his words imprinted strongly on my heart and helped open my eyes to conditions in the world so different than my own.
In one of his poems he writes:"Bless you, prison, for having been in my life." "God of the Universe! I believe again! Though I renounced You, You were with me!"
Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus - I Thessalonians 5:18
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