I liked Cancer Ward so much that when I saw this in a used bookstore it absolutely had to come home with me. And since I'd read Cancer Ward during a previous Dewey's readathon, I decided this collection of two stories was a perfect way to start my readathon morning.

The first story, "An Incident at Krechstovka Station" took a while to get going for me, but as it unfolds it depicts a young lieutenant struggling with duty and ideals while making impossible decisions on too little information.

The second, "Matryona's House," was easier to jump into from the start -- a depiction of the greed and meanness in a small Soviet village -- centered around Matryona, the kind of simple woman easily despised for not being as self-serving as the despisers are.

I found both stories moving, and remain impressed by Solzhenitsyn's gift for characterization. ( )

I didn't quite get the incident story but I really liked matryona.sphere books ( )

This book includes two of Solzhenitsyn's early novellas: "An Incident at Krechetovka Station" and "Matryona's House." The first one concerns a solicitous young army lieutenant who's been relegated to the oversight of traincar routing at a rail station during World War II. Disappointed to not be stationed at the front yet very much focused on his tedious work, the lieutenant's drab daily life is suddenly upended by the appearance of a mysterious straggler in his office. Intrigued at first, the lieutenant must decide what to do with this man. The piece is highly atmospheric, evoking strong images of the cold rainy rail station and the peculiar strained relationships between the army personnel and civilians working there. It offers a satisfying slice-of-life narrative about life in parts of Russia during this time of the War.

The second novella is a first-person account of a former prisoner who seeks and gains a teaching post in rural Russia in order to get in touch with the heart of his country. He takes up residence in an old woman's peasant cottage. The story follows his experiences living there, as the details of the life of his ailing landlady slowly unfold. As with most of Solzhenitsyn's work, this novella can be read as a commentary on certain segments of Russian society, and perhaps even extrapolated to humanity as a whole. In this case, Solzhenitsyn makes strong points on the way that this village operates, and how the old woman's relatives treat her and react to her nature.

This was a quick read and I really enjoyed it, although it's not as complex as some of his later works. The one odd aspect to this book is the translation. I hate to make this criticism, given the difficulty of translation in general, and in particular that of Russian to English. However, in the translator's preface, he notes "an attempt has been made to retain as much of the flavor of the original as possible in colloquial American English without sacrificing accuracy." In some cases, it is this colloquial American English that seems comically out of place. But this is only a minor complaint and didn't take away from the force of the work. I only mention it because it caused me to laugh a little in unexpected places. ( )

In short this is a collection of two novella's - Incident at Krechetovka Station and Matryona's House. The first is set at the start of WWII and the other a few years after, both look at the system in Russia at those times and how people's lives are affected. I'm actually surprised that they were published in Russia in 1963. Solzhenitsyn is an amazing writer and the translation by Paul Blackstock seems to be very good.

In Incident at Krechetovka Station we basically follow a day at the eponymous station as a young officer. Lieutenant Zotov, deals with the routing of trains and the "stragglers" from the front lines. This gives a vivid picture of the time and the worries of the young Soviet officer.

In Matryona's House it is 1953 and a young man looks for work as a teacher and ends up boarding at Matryona's house. An elderly woman who believes in the system and helps out her neighbours but finds that she has less and less.

Both stories point out the flaws in the Soviet system. Both stories have their tragic side but Solzhenitsyn creates believable characters in an impossible situation. I will definitely be reading more of his work. ( )

These two novellas are rare Solzhenitsyn stories that were published in the Soviet Union. The first one is the more surprising for that, being an account of how Soviet beauracracy and inefficiency during WWII cause an Army officer running a railroad switching line to retreat from the pity and liking he had shown to a straggler soldier, lost from his unit, instead arresting the man on suspicion of espionage, but always after wondering if he'd made the wise - or merely the safe decision. The second story is a short and sad one about an old woman, sick and pensionless, whose sudden death gives rise to squabbles among her survivors over her property, while a boarder reflects that her brand of generosity and simple virtue were what made life worth living, and what Russia could not live without. Good stories, both. ( )