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Title: Industry of Souls : A Novel by Martin Booth ISBN: 0-312-26753-3 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 06 October, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 (20 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Friendship and love where you'd least expect them
Comment: A touching book about friendship in the gulags (work camps) of Siberia, The Industry of Souls by Martin Booth is a wonderfully written novel with an unforgettable story that examines the most basic human emotions of love and hope during the worst of times.
The book follows the life of Alexander Bayliss, a British citizen who is wrongly accused of espionage by the KGB and is sentenced to 25 years of hard labor in Siberia. The book centers around the friendships and bonds he makes with the six other men in Work Unit 8. Even in the terrible living and working conditions of the gulag, the seven men help and support each other in order to maintain their optimism and sanity. Almost all were betrayed into the gulags either by their acquaintances or by their country. Over the course of two decades, they find understanding and trust once more in their comrades.
This book explores themes of love, friendship, and freedom in the unusual setting of the gulag. The setting helps bring out the themes because it is often only during the worst of times when one truly comes to appreciate what they would normally take for granted. Martin Booth delves deep into these themes, showing us that even in the most hellish places, love and hope can exist.
In this way, what I found to be the most touching was the friendship between Shurik (Alexander's nickname) and Kirill, the leader of Work Unit 8. The events that unfold bring the reader to ponder the value of a true comrade. They make the reader wonder how far they would go for a friend.
At times the book is heartbreaking. Other times, the book leaves the reader furious at the injustices of Communist Russia. However, I don't believe Martin Booth was trying to reveal the corruption that put fear in the lives of all Russians during that period of time. I think his main message was that even in bad times and in the midst of such corruption, true friendship can help you pull through. As Shurik said himself, "I owed... my allegiance to my comrades, not to my country. Friends are more important than flags." A thoroughly compelling read, the reader is drawn into the story and doesn't want to leave. I give this book five stars.
Rating: 3
Summary: A Story of a Man who miraculously finds Freedom & Friendship
Comment: This was an interesting book that I bought because it was clipped out of almost winning the coveted Booker Prize. It was an interesting story that I think would make a wonderful film. The whole idea of being wrongfully accused of being a British agent and arrested by the Russian KGB and sentenced to 25 years of hard labor is a painful thought. However, this British character grows on you as you feel his pain and suffering while he works around it via friendships with inmates. It's meaningful, but I wouldn't rave about it as a very BEST BOOK that one must read. There is a line in the book that goes, "So what wisdom have you learnt today? Or has it yet to come?" Well, I liked the book but I still feel the wisdom I wanted to get has yet to come. There were some remarkable lines that are worth remembering (that I will not deny). More men would appreciate the book than women. It's written by a man who is writing about a man's life. In the end, the main character chooses a small village to remain close to the family he promised to keep a watchful eye over. The writing style is unique.
Rating: 5
Summary: Uplifting.
Comment: An Englishman is sent to a Russian gulag on trumped up charges in his 30's, and serves his 25 year term. Now he is 80, living in a Russian village with a couple who treat him as a father. Reflections on his life, both gulag and village, are interspersed with the events of the day celebrating his birthday. This is a feel good, uplifting story. While the facts of gulag life are there, few of the gulag scenes are terribly disturbing, and the only one I connected with on a deeply emotional level was one in which the Englishman recounts the daydream he escapes into to remain sane. Instead the comradeship and humanity of the work team of political prisoners is emphasized. After reflection, I have concluded this is an honest story, and to be both honest and uplifting - as well as interesting - is always an achievement. As in Islands of Silence, Booth seems to have a wonderful empathy for the old.
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Title: Islands of Silence: A Novel by Martin Booth ISBN: 0312268041 Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books Pub. Date: 03 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Hiroshima Joe: A Novel by Martin Booth ISBN: 031226805X Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 04 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Deposition of Father McGreevy by Brian O'Doherty ISBN: 1900850486 Publisher: Arcadia Books UK Pub. Date: April, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Dirt Music : A Novel by Tim Winton ISBN: 0743228480 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 13 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: A Very Private Gentleman by Martin Booth ISBN: 0312309082 Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books Pub. Date: 26 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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