One answer to this question is to tell a story. Just out of grad school, I worked briefly as a lab tech investigating pesticides and how well they worked in artichoke fields. This involved weekly trips down to Castroville California, the center of commercial artichoke production (at least it was in the '70s). One week there were two carloads of us, our carload arrived at the field well ahead of the others. I had brought along Cancer Ward to pass the time on the road, so I go back to the book while waiting for the others to arrive. I'm standing there in my lab coveralls, leaning against the side of the car, my mind completely in Ward 13 of the Tashkent hospital, 1955. The other carload arrives, I put the book down and am startled to find myself back in 1978 at the edge of a field in Castrovillle California.
That is the way the man writes, you can get lost in the story and forget where you are. I've seen several other testimonies like this to his writings, on Amazon review pages or elsewhere. The man can write.
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I completely agree with you about the NON-distractability factor of Solzhenitsyn.
He captivates me, and isn't this just the best of his books, ever? Well, there is also The First Circle, which I adore! I don't know which I like better.
Both of them need to be re-read, by me.
What a great blog you've got going here!
-- Cip
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