Landmark Publications of 2009: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "In the First Circle"
The second half of 2009 saw the publication of several landmark texts. The word text will suffice, elevated above the usual categories of novel, short story collection, poetry volume, etc. The publications I am going to talk about in the next few months, one per month, were exercises in textualizing , by publishers who were seeking to affirm and extend the longevity of the texts; they were prompted by some customer demand, some opportunity, or by the death of the author, to publish a major work that would put in the spotlight some of the key works that had brought fame to that author. Some of these books have found their way to me, seeking to be reviewed, or simply to be talked about. Today I am going to talk about Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's In the First Circle: The first Uncensored Edition , published by HarperPerennial and translated from the Russian by Harry T Willets. I have already reviewed it in 200 words for the San Franciso Book Review , where I gave it 5 stars for the fact t...