one day in the life of Ivan Denisovich

If anybody's still out there, I'm here too. I just thought I'd post my latest book club book review to let you all know I still exist.


  One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Before you begin reading, click THIS LINK. How many of you know and love THAT sound? ...It's been a while.

At any rate, if they ever turn One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich into mini-series or TV show, I think they should use that format.

Solzhenitsyn captures the depressing and hopeless monotony of prison life quite well - and in doing so, he captures the same about all life in Soviet Russia - and indeed all Totalitarian States.

It's sad, but there are times even here in America, where I feel burdened by a terrible sense of ennui yet find myself saying, "Yeah... well... what a great day it's been after all." I'm not sure if this is reflective of the human condition, or if the burden would be lifted if our government wasn't constantly spying on us.

(Side-note: The one good thing about PRISM and the NSA spying is that I know deep-down that someone, somewhere is reading my goodreads reviews. If only PRISM would click the "like" button...)

The book is rife with Russian platitudes: "It's easy for someone who is warm to say, 'don't mind the cold.'" "Beat a dog once and you only have to show them the whip." Etc...

And you must have skipped out on 10th grade English if you didn't notice some of Shukhov's irony: "Even Shukhov thought it was funny for somebody to go on working like that and not hear the signal to knock off..." (This just after he'd done the same thing...) Or "He was still no scavenger..." (This just after he "rushed back" to the barracks to try to mooch off another prisoner.)

Solzhenitsyn seems to be pointing out that it's human nature to judge others - even when we have the very same flaw. And that in prison (and maybe in a Totalitarian State) it's comforting to say, "It could be worse... I could be like that guy..." I've heard that in North Korea every year is a LOT better than the last.

In the book, a character is criticizing Prokofiev's Ivan the Terrible and he says, "Too much art is no art at all. Like candy instead of bread!"

One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich is bread. Good, wholesome, hearty bread that will sustain you through the day. The kind of bread that you break in half in order to sew half into your mattress, saving it for later. And when you get back to reading it, you think: "Yeah... today's been a good day after all."

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Keeping Up

If you stop by during the summer, leave a comment.

During the summer, this blog becomes mine.  I can write about whatever I want - and I may not update it.  You've been warned on both counts.

That said, I've been keeping up with my summer goals - one of which is reading.  I review every book I read, and post them to goodreads.com

Here's my latest.


The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

*Goodreads is weird... since I read this before, my status says: "Began June 13, 2013 - Finished January 1, 2004..."

I guess as soon as I write this review, I will no longer be credited with reading this book in 2004. I was there, though. It happened.*


Book club books are great. If you're not in a club, I suggest you join one - and not some online forum (although those can be good as well) but a real club - where you sit down face-to-face with people you love to disagree with (or be disagreeable with...)

We read The Scarlet Letter just after finishing Philip Roth's book: Sabbath's Theater. These two VERY different books have some very similar themes. In fact, I'd argue that the central message of both is the same thing:

(If you don't want the central message of either of these books, avert your eyes now. I'm serious, you may regret it if you keep reading. Just head down to the bottom and click "like" out of appreciation for this warning...)

The central message is this: We try to hide it, but we're all depraved beings.

In the Philip Roth book, Mickey Sabbath isn't just depraved - he's totally depraved. I don't mean that in any theological sense, it's just... that guy is bad news. But (I believe) the point Roth was making is that we're all that way. We have hidden desires that we don't act on. And while we're in no way envious of Mickey or what he becomes, we are a little jealous that he has the uhhh... ...guts... to live life on his terms - without remorse or guilt.

The Scarlet Letter is the exact opposite of that. Whereas Sabbath's Theater was a book of excess; a book of sexual deviancy - The Scarlet Letter is a Puritanical book. The most heinous act occurring before page one.

This isn't a spoiler, I'm only putting it in here because it's boring: (view spoiler)[Page one? PAGE ONE?!?! I ordered my book from an independent book store (as I always do for these books) I started reading it, and wasn't 2 pages in when I realized: I'm missing the first 50 or so pages. I had an edition that left out the introduction. Now, the introduction is fairly boring, but it has it's purposes - and a number of good quotes. Why would a book do that? (hide spoiler)]

Yet the theme is still the same: we are the townspeople. We're judging Hester, thankful we have someone to take the focus off the secrets in our own lives.


Obviously, both books were about much more than that. I'm sure you've already beat this horse to death in 9th or 10th grade English.

The Scarlet Letter's about coming clean. It's about the freedom in the truth, and facing adversity head-on. It's about the differences in gender-roles and punishments. It's about hypocrisy (most blatantly with the good Reverend, but also with the townspeople - from wearing the ornate clothes that Hester herself made to the dirty looks they gave.) (...I know, I know, back-to-back parenthetical asides... May I just add that the scarlet letter - the letter mind you, not the book - served as a nice advertisement for Hester's abilities...)

Reading it now, I also see why it's a staple of high school classrooms. It contains all kinds of literary devices: irony, metaphor, simile, symbolism, etc... I mean, Pearl? It's a challenging read, but not overly-so.

If you weren't forced into reading this during your teenage years, consider picking it up.

Or, if you were forced and didn't like it - consider giving it another shot. (Although, I'd skip the intro... apparently it's not worth it.)

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It's not you, it's me.

I imagine it's difficult for all humans to understand time as a concept.  I do not feel like the year is over.  How and when did it end?

As I was reflecting on the year at home Wednesday night, I had the thought that the end of the school year is so much like a Junior High break up.  How appropriate that I teach Junior High.

I remembered the thought toward the end of the school day yesterday, and shared it with my last class.  I talked about how weird it is that we've spent all this time together, we were around each other everyday.  Generally speaking, we really liked each other, but at times I annoy the class and they annoy me.

I mentioned that things would never be the same between us.  They'd get awkward.  Next year as 8th graders they might see me in the hall, maybe we'd high five.  Maybe they'd ask how Gandhi's doing.  (He's still dead...)  But we'd both know things aren't the same.

I told my class, "it's not you, it's me."  And they asked me if there was someone else.  I told them, well... yes... There's a group of 6th graders that's*

And the class cut me off: "SO YOU'RE TRADING US IN FOR SOMEONE YOUNGER?!?!?!"  (I kid you not, 7th hour really did say this...)

I hemmed and hawed for a while, but admitted it was true.  I apologized, but I think they were too upset at the moment to accept.

And lets be honest.  It's not me.  It's you.  We've both changed, but you're the ones who are moving on.  If we're being honest, it's this 7th grade class that's breaking up with me.

At any rate, it's not a perfect analogy.

As all endings are, yesterday was a time of reflection.  As a teacher, I think that's one thing many teachers don't do well enough (myself included...)  We're so focused on doing, that we leave little time to sit, and think, and reflect.  It's always go, go, go.


That's been one of the benefits of the blog - it's good for the students, but it's also good for me.  I get a chance to sit down and think about how the day went.  What we did, what went well, what didn't...

And so, we reflected on the year.  But we also thought about the future.  Every year I make 5 goals for the summer and 5 goals for the next school year.  I also make a 5 year goal and a 10 year goal. We discuss keeping the goals attainable - yet not too attainable.  I tried to talk them into choosing goals that make them into the person they want to be.  (So we discussed academic goals, athletic goals, relational goals - helping out around the house, etc...)

They didn't have to write any, but many students did.  If they wrote them, I encouraged them to put them somewhere they can be seen.  I keep mine on the side of the fridge.  They're not in a very prominent spot, but one that I see everyday.  Every once in a while I look at them and it reminds me of where I want to be going, and it helps me regain my focus.

If you didn't write any, it's not too late.

Here are my goals from last year - in case you're interested:

I've got to finish cleaning my classroom.  Thanks for a great year.  If you're ever wondering what's going on, feel free to leave a comment.

If you're reading and discussing the blog for extra credit... seriously... you probably have enough.

Stop by Tomorrow

This was a fantastic last day of school.  Unfortunately, with all the partying, I don't have time to give my final thoughts/ reflections on the year.

Of course, you can't get extra credit for them anyway...  But they might be fun to read.  Especially if you're really bored or something... summer's like that.

THIS IS IT

Feel free to check back in over the summer and leave comments - but this is it: the last chance at getting extra credit for reading/ discussing the blog.

We've done a lot this year.  (Just read back through old posts and see for yourself...)

What I'd like you to do for this blog post is discuss how the year went with the adult.  I'd prefer if you focused specifically on this class, but you can venture into school in general if you please.

What was your favorite activity or moment from this class?  What lessons went well?  What didn't go well?  Can you name anything you learned?  Do you remember anything from back at the beginning of the year?  (Think about latitude and longitude; culture; ethnocentrism; globalization; etc...)  What are you going to do this summer to avoid brain drain?  When reflecting on the year, there's plenty to discuss.  So reflect; discuss.

Maybe I'll post tomorrow and give you my thoughts on the year, and how I plan on avoiding summer brain drain.

To get the extra credit, write 3 sentences from your discussion, and have the adult you discussed with sign the paper.  Turn it in tomorrow.  (I wouldn't wait until Friday.)

Summer... here we come.