April 1917: The Red Wheel, Node IV, Book 1 (The Center for Ethics and Culture Solzhenitsyn Series)

I don’t know how many casual readers will pick up a book by Solzhenitsyn, especially once they see the size of it. However, there may always be readers like me, who have a fascination with history but know the broad strokes rather than the details. Actual historians may get more out of this book – and the rest of the series – than I did, but as I am not of their number, this review is for the laypeople and the casual history fans.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

At first, I worried that I had hit a wall right away. Unfamiliar names were being thrown at me left and right, and it was hard for me to keep track of them. However, as I got further in, I found I was able to keep track of the names, and the list of important figures in the back helped a great deal. Better still, both Solzhenitsyn and Kitson, the translator, bring life and eagerness to what could too easily become a dry rendering of history. Instead, it feels alive and vibrant, and has woken my historical interest further.