Yowsers, re: This I Cannot Forget ... and "yowsers" is what I say as a distancing word, because the pain of what you describe is so strong that if I were try to react more directly.... Anyway, one day I'll ask you which gulag memoir would be the one to read if one were to read just one (but not today, and I have a feeling the answer would depend on the reason for reading and one's emotional and time constraints).

And about the colonialism, in the first book, can I ask how it manifests? Is it in blithe assumptions that the locals are simple folks who need a guiding hand, or---?