Can there be a duty to read a work of literature?
Most people I’ve met who are at least aware of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s masterwork The Gulag Archipelago know that they should read the book. They know of the book’s historical importance and of Solzhenitsyn’s stature as one of the great Soviet dissidents and writers of the 20th century. They know the book is a kind of prison memoir, full of suffering but worth the difficult journey.
