Often the cancers correlate with their victims’ defining traits: Podduyev dies of cancer of the tongue throat cancer robs a philosopher of his speech. Podduyev, a loud-mouthed liar, broaches the novel’s thematic core when he reads in Tolstoy’s story “What Men Live By” that the correct answer is “love.” His quizzing of ward-mates elicits superficial answers: rations, air, water, one’s pay, one’s professional skills. Unlike the author, Oleg comes from Leningrad, lacks formal education, and is unmarried.Ĭancer forces the clinic’s patients to ponder death, which is always the chief prompter of the human drama, and thus the novel focuses on the ultimate question of the meaning of life. Like the author, Oleg had fought in World War II, served time in the Gulag because of incautious comments about Stalin, experienced internal exile, developed cancer, and received treatment at the clinic in Tashkent. He shares some qualities with Solzhenitsyn, though not as many as The First Circle’s Gleb Nerzhin. One character, Oleg Kostoglotov, rises in significance above any other. Cancer Ward and The First Circle appeared in the West in 1968 to critical acclaim.Ĭancer Ward, like The First Circle, is autobiographical in inspiration, presents a cross-section of society within a place of confinement, and uses the polyphonic structure to emphasize character rather than plot. When this attempt failed, his standing as an author acceptable to the Soviet authorities ended. After the sensational success of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Solzhenitsyn tried to get Cancer Ward published.
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