Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, In the First Circle. Translated by Harry T. Willets

Excerpt

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Nobel Lecture claims that beauty might save the world. It can be argued that one of the most beautiful creations of the human mind is the Russian novel. What makes Russian novels matchless is their complexity. By comparison, much American 20th century literature and all of its popular culture are straightforward. Most stories in American popular culture have a happy ending. On the other hand, America’s more thoughtful literature points out that the nation’s ideals of prosperity, happiness, and individual realization are unattainable either because America’s practices do not live up to its principles or because the country’s aspiration are in fact chimerical. Perhaps Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea portrays the idea best. No matter how expert and determined, the old man cannot bring home the fish. No matter how skilled at baseball, Joe DiMaggio cannot find contentment in his private life; and no matter how much effort Americans expend in the pursuit of happiness, their lives never quite match their expectations. …