The Death of Ivan Illych by Leo Tolstoy
This is my book group’s selection for October. I hated it. Well, let me qualify that. I appreciate the craftsmanship and construction of the piece. But no one was happier that Ivan finally died that I was. This is a great book for those English 201 classes in short story deconstruction. Lots of stuff here for that. But as an enjoyable piece of writing, it’s not.
That’s not to say that all books should be happy, peppy pieces. But this is just an unrelenting dirge. The book of Job is more uplifting. I’m just thankful it was less than 100 pages.
