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THE DEATH OF IVAN ILICH: AN INTERPRETATION by Gary R. Jahn. Twayne's Masterwork Studies. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993. xiv + 115 pages. $22.95 cloth; $7.95 paper.
Gary R. Jahn divides his overview of The Death Of Ivan Ilich into a section on the literary and historical context and a longer one devoted to a reading. Jahn begins by stressing the importance of A Confession, written about 1879, in which Tolstoy recounts the awful depression that overcame him when faced with the futility of life and his obliteration by death. Tolstoy's sole source of faith lay in the peasantry, and he clung to the peasants' irrational knowledge as the only defense against his despair: "Faith still remained for me as irrational as it was before, but I could not but admit that it alone gives people a reply to the questions of life, and that consequently it makes life possible." This conviction enabled a saving belief in God: "To know God and to live are one and the same. God is life." This opening discussion becomes vital for the reading that Jahn gives.
In his summary of the critical reception, Jahn explains that Literary works in...