I read Solzhenitsyn as a twenty something. He was a very curious figure to me. What was this gulag archipelago? A prison system for thought criminals? How frightening. Cancer Ward scared me even more. Just like a person suffering from cancer, its allegory of a nation struggling with tumors spread by communism was thought provoking. How can a nation survive such a malignant disease? One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich was an amazing testament to human barbarity but also the human spirit. Even though I found all his books terribly depressing, I found his commitment to speaking truth to power heroic. I know it is very odd practice, but I inserted one his speeches in its into my book in its entirety. This probably is bad form for a fictional novel and poorly executed but what the hell. I believe his voice needs to broadcast again to ears eager for truth. It seems like the West abandoned him when he said some uncomfortable things about us. Today, there is so much propaganda spewing forth from all corners of our society. It is time to call people out. I am using Solzhenitsyn’s speech in a turn of the tables. No longer is the target that of Soviet government and society but much closer to home. Like John Brown, history doesn’t seem to know how to securely place him. Certainly, in his life, speaking truth to power made him a hot potato by every country and political system that tried to appropriate his intellect for their own advantage. I like historical figures whose morality was so uncompromising in life that they make people uncomfortable years after they have passed on. Live no by lies!