They sat in the cold mess hall, most of them eating with their hats on, eating slowly, picking out putrid little fish from under the leaves of boiled black cabbage and spitting the bones out on the table. When the bones formed a heap and it was the turn of another squad, someone would sweep them off and they'd be trodden into a mush on the floor. But it was considered bad manners to spit the fishbones straight out on the floor.
(from One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn)
9½ Stars. The full review is here.
No comments:
Post a Comment