Lingering like wine

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn is an excellent novel, lingering like wine. And it is all due to the cold and the hunger and the suffering of Ivan. It is also due to the countless prisoners, the gang leaders, the guards, the repeated counting of the gangs. The prisoners working outside in the biting cold, hungry, sick, and homesick, are hawklike, ready to snitch food from anybody. And the apathy of the prison authorities when it comes to the condition of the prisoners.

There is endless hope too, about a parcel, about extra food, about lowering years of sentence, about not being put in the cell where less food is supplied and which is cold. Fear about not to be caught with anything like wood or knives in one's person. The leadership pattern was such that the prisoners listened only to their leaders.

There is closeness of some prisoners with others, as they sympathized, bought and sold tobacco. There were other kinds of sharing too.

he writer's style is personal, and the reader feels a part of the story. There is curiosity, and no boredom while reading the book, although it describes only one day. The ending is optimistic - of a day well-spent.

Grapes of Wrath

Amazing novel by John Steinbeck, a classic no doubt. The use of local language, and style of presentation has a dramatic effect. There are commentary chapters about farmers leaving their land in search of work and money, interspersed with the story of the Joad family.

Each of the chapters described well how one by one the characters leave their moving family. Finally Tom, the son who killed a second man, leaves, and there is little or ho hope. But now and then, hope trickles in. The children's mother is extraordinarily strong. The surviving men help her by keepin together the remaining family.

Through all the suffering, help comes in in some way or the other. There was no work, but somehow the people earned a few cents and dollars, and the members dragged along.

The end is optimistic. The poor helps the poor. Rose of Sharon loses her baby, who is born dead. But she gives life to a dying man by giving him her milk. A striking, innovative, real end.

All throughout, the feeling is of a real family suffering.