The Death of Ivan Ilych

The Death of Ivan Ilych, by Leo Tolstoy, is both rewarding and unsettling reading. Few novels treat dying as boldly. In this story Ivan Ilyich’s life and death are plainly represented in a fashion that remarkably resembles the experience of many who are near death or the dying. What the novel puts on display in so satisfying and disconcerting a fashion is the remarkable inability or reluctance of most people to take part in the life of a person who is inevitably and rather immediately dying. Only one character in the novel has the goodness, humility and patience to care for a dying man, the rest scurry about and take care of their anticipated needs in the face of losing a loved one. This is a good book to read more than once. It remains a fine portrait of a bureaucrat whose family life does not entirely satisfy him and whose pursuit of a more meaningful life fails to cease even in sickness, when he understands that his mortality is soon to be demonstrated. A thought-provoking, excellent read.