More Russian Prison Novels, YES!!!!

The Fixer - Bernard Malamud
It's never been a safe or healthy thing to be a Jew in Russia. This was especially the case in the 1800's as pogroms, plagues, starvation, and political intrigue took their toll physically and psychologically. Then along came the communists - and specifically Stalin. Stalin killed more Jews than Hitler, which unflatteringly illuminates our real motives in the war with Germany and Japan. But alas that is the far distant future for this novel, but not so far as to be beyond extrapolation. It's difficult to imagine that the same author who gave us The Natural, would write so dark a novel - - but indeed he does. This belongs on the well established list of prison narratives despite the fact that a majority of the book does not even take place in a physical prison. The entrapment is one of society and psycology, and the walls are just as real.
Rating: B+
Related:
The Trial - Franz Kafka
Darkness at Noon - Arthur Koestler
Forever Flowing - Vasily Grossman
The First Circle - Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisyvitch - A. Solzhenitsyn
1984 - George Orwell