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A review by itshaldun
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
If I rated this book right after finishing it, I think I’d have given it 3.5 stars. This is mainly because of the bloat and the way characters talk and ramble on about nothing. In that sense, the age of the book does show.
So I let my thoughts and feelings digest for couple of days, and the frustration I felt reading the boring parts washed away. #lifehacks
Let’s talk what makes this book, and in fact, any Dostoevsky work, exceptional. It’s the pure, deep dive into human psyche. Dostoevsky has exceptional understanding of human psychology, and it still holds up.
I mean, if Nietzsche calls it good, you know it’s pretty fucking good. Or consider this, there is a passage where a character criticizes “let me fix him” type of girls. Dostoevsky was that ahead of the curve.
I was also surprised to see this book being a critique of Übermensch concept. Main character at the start firmly believes it, and the events of the book happen directly because of it.
Just like most books of that era, writing and the depth of woman characters don’t hold up, and their lives revolve entirely around the male cast, but this is hardly surprising. There is also the aforementioned bloat problem, especially in the middle of the book. And finally, the names, being foreign to me, was really hard to remember and recognize, not helped by the fact that characters had nicknames that had nothing to do with their normal names, and how some characters used last names while others used first names or the nicknames. Stop it, get some help.
If you’re having hard time finishing the book, have your parents get you tickets to a terrible play of it. The fear of the reading experience being ruined by the play will fill you with the determination to finish the book in no time!
So I let my thoughts and feelings digest for couple of days, and the frustration I felt reading the boring parts washed away. #lifehacks
Let’s talk what makes this book, and in fact, any Dostoevsky work, exceptional. It’s the pure, deep dive into human psyche. Dostoevsky has exceptional understanding of human psychology, and it still holds up.
I mean, if Nietzsche calls it good, you know it’s pretty fucking good. Or consider this, there is a passage where a character criticizes “let me fix him” type of girls. Dostoevsky was that ahead of the curve.
I was also surprised to see this book being a critique of Übermensch concept. Main character at the start firmly believes it, and the events of the book happen directly because of it.
Just like most books of that era, writing and the depth of woman characters don’t hold up, and their lives revolve entirely around the male cast, but this is hardly surprising. There is also the aforementioned bloat problem, especially in the middle of the book. And finally, the names, being foreign to me, was really hard to remember and recognize, not helped by the fact that characters had nicknames that had nothing to do with their normal names, and how some characters used last names while others used first names or the nicknames. Stop it, get some help.
If you’re having hard time finishing the book, have your parents get you tickets to a terrible play of it. The fear of the reading experience being ruined by the play will fill you with the determination to finish the book in no time!