Thanks. I'm not student of literature, but one thing that takes my breath away in his writings is the finest balance between the heart of the individual and the whole big wide world. I really did think "A Day" was written just for me, a scrawny school kid in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. "The Firce Circle" provoked a similar response - it was so intimate. "Cancer Ward" was too painful to read. The Gulag books themselves were pretty overhwelming, but the literature is masterful.