Rating: 
Summary: Unusual Story Of Russia?s Gulags
Review: "The Industry Of Souls", by Martin Booth is an unusual tale of one man's experience in Russia's penal system. The system may be more accurately defined as a method of gathering masses of slave labor, or, "Ants", as one character suggests. If you have only read non-fiction or historically based fiction of these camps, this book may surprise or perhaps even leave you feeling a bit incredulous. However this is fiction and should be taken as such.Prior to Mr. Booth's work I had primarily either read of the Gulag System of camps while reading history of the era, or books specifically on the camps themselves. Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize wrote what can be considered the definitive and massive trilogy, "The Gulag Archipelago". He additionally wrote further fiction and historically based fiction on the topic and his personal experiences while imprisoned. Anatoli Rybakov also wrote a brilliant trilogy beginning with, "Children Of The Arbat". This is the very first time I have read a work that takes the reader through the misery of 25 years as a prisoner above the Artic Circle digging coal, and then upon his release the same man adopts the Country that savaged his life. Fiction allows anything to be stated, and perhaps a story happened in a manner like you will read of here. I found the book to be excellent reading, however it was so contradictory to the History I have read it was hard for me to suspend disbelief. This work was short listed for The Booker Prize and that is not an accomplishment to be taken lightly and neither is this book. I very much enjoyed the main character Alexander Bayliss, and to the extent a man or woman could endure what he did and find a sort of happiness in the later years of his life was noble, but again such a result would seem almost to be impossible. However, the village and the people who live there, the motive for his initial visit, and his remarkable decisions he is faced with at the book's end make for great reading. The book is very, very good. However if you have read Historical accounts about these camps, the transition to less than horrific endings takes a bit of adjustment.
Rating: 
Summary: Friendship and love where you'd least expect them
Review: 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:
Summary: Life in a foreign land
Review: Alexander Bayliss, Englishman, is arrested by the KGB and sent to the Gulag for 25 years. These he spends in a coal mine near the arctic circle. After his release, he spends the next twenty years in the small village of Myshkino on the Volga, where everybody calls him Shurik. The book opens on the 80th birthday of Shurik. A good time to reflect on the past and to think, perhaps of the future. Shurik tells us about his years in the coal mine and his work mates, who become inseparable friends. In the worst of adversity, they are there for each other, united especially in their disdain for the communist regime. At times, the story sounds like Solzhenitsyn's "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich". Survival becomes a matter of attitude, and the author describes it well. It is not so much the brutality of the camp as the spiritual emptiness of thousands of days with only the same manual labor. In the village of Myshkino, Shurik teaches English at the local school. He opens the children's eyes to the world beyond and teaches them how to think on their own. Shurik is much beloved by everybody and, on this birthday, he is content. It is a truism that, as life goes on, one tends to repress the bad things but to revive the good ones. Mr. Booth has written a beautiful book, full of charm and loving detail. The language is superb, and the flow of the story riveting. Maybe he gets a bit too sugary at times, but that can be overlooked.
Rating:
Summary: Uplifting.
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Uplifting.
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Very Moving
Review: I found this book very touching. The main character is an amazing, noble man. I didn't want this tale to end. I found myself writing down sentences from the book, thinking that I would send them to friends who would also find them touching and perfect. Bring a hanky for this one. Another reviewer said this book would make a good movie, and I agree.
Rating:
Summary: A book to remember
Review: I was loaned this book by a friend who bought it at a dollar store, and it sat on the shelf for a long time before I finally had enough time (between other books and general workload) to read it. I wish I had read it sooner. I honestly can say that this book touched me in a way that few books do. Not only did it inspire me to contemplation, it also touched me on an emotional level. The story of Shurik and his years in the gulag and the lessons he learned (both in the mining camp and in his time in Myshkino) really pulled me in and imparted wonderfully written words of wisdom upon me. I think everyone should read this book, really. I can honestly say, out of all the books I have ever read, this is my absolute favourite. I give all my praise to Martin Booth and the Industry of Souls.
Rating:
Summary: The Power of the Gentle Soul
Review: Martin Booth's gentle story is a true gem. Truthfully, I brought it to read because I thought it was about the horrors of the gulag, and such tales hold a fascination that's hard for me to resist. Instead, I found a wonderful, insightful and warm story of friendship and love; not what I was looking for, yet more than I could have hoped for. As Shurik strolls through his beloved Russian village of Myshkino on his eightieth birthday, he stops to chat with friends and remembers back to his 25 years of hard labor in the coal mines of the gulag. And as we follow him through the village and through time, we learn that love and friendship are all we have and all we need. When those are strong in us, the unbearable is bearable and the little moments of life are more important than we can imagine. There is such integrity and wisdom in its lessons that "The Industry of Souls" is virtually a text book on the power of relationships. I won't forget this story for a long time. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: A true masterpeice
Review: The author has presented us with the life story of an elderly man all of us, sooner or later, can readily identify with. Almost in bodhisattva form, this character will inspire and nourish our soul as no other book I have read.
Rating:
Summary: A parable for our times.
Review: This thoughtful and loving tribute to the human spirit begins with the lines: "It is the industry of the soul, to love and to hate; to seek after the beautiful and to recognise the ugly; to honour friends and wreak vengeance upon enemies..." Here and elsewhere throughout the book, Booth uses Biblical parallels to advance his message about the human condition: "[There is] a time to love and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace [Ecclesiastes]..." In quiet, thoughtful tones, the main character, 80-year-old Alexander Bayliss, called Shurik, reflects on his life, a life which we would consider intolerable but in which he has found satisfaction and, remarkably, much joy. At eighty, he is a man completely at peace with his world, celebrating the love, endurance, and forgiveness which have made his life not only bearable, but ultimately, happy. Shurik was a 40-year-old Englishman doing business in the Soviet Union when he was summarily arrested for espionage and sentenced to hard labor in the gulag, spending the next twenty years in a coal mine. In the hellish darkness and depths of the mine, however, Shurik finds enlightenment. One of seven men in his labor group, he and his companions become a family, fiercely loyal to each other, accepting life moment by moment, with no thoughts wasted on a future they cannot afford to contemplate. Eventually released, Shurik lives a quiet life in a small Russian village, where he becomes much beloved. When Communism fails and the Soviet Union dissolves, Bayliss, at eighty, finds himself faced with his most difficult decision. This ambitious novel entertains at the same time that it conveys a strong message about man's enduring spirit and the need to forgive. The symbolism is clear and easily understood--the miners digging up a completely preserved wooly mammoth, then roasting and eating part of it, Shurik acting as teacher to the children of the village and sometimes speaking in aphorisms or proverbs, the story of the fox in the cage, the making of bread in the village, Shurik arguing for the historic preservation of the local church, etc. The language is simple, the images are unforgettable, the prose style is both musical and urgent, and the characters are admirable and sympathetic. A memorable and thoughtfully constructed novel, every detail of which advances Bayliss's message.
|
