Obviously a significant, impactful book and a fascinating read, probably for anyone but certainly for people like me who are still mostly unfamiliar with Russian history and culture. Necessary perspective on how corrupt a government can get and how good we really have it in the modern Western world in comparison (though Solzhenitsyn might disagree himself).

Despite this book's value and even though I'm glad to have read it, I give it a 4/5 just because I feel it could have been even more effective and reached more people if it were edited down and reorganized a bit to reduce repetition and emphasize the general descriptions over the long strings of anecdotes.