SOURCE: A review of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, in The Russian Review, Vol. 22, No. 3, July, 1963, pp. 336-7.

In the following review, Hull offers a positive assessment of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, though he calls its merit more political than literary.

No modern Soviet novel since Doctor Zhivago has stirred up the teapot-tempest of this curious work, the first novel of a completely unknown writer. Its success to date has been amazing: two separate translations issued in both hardback and paperback editions, plus at this date the threat of yet a third translation (which might not be a bad idea), a one-hour television adaption and a probable full-length Hollywood film version.

Why this extraordinary attention should be focused on this book lies more in the realm of the political analyst than in the domain of the literary critic.

To his credit...