A review by chery
The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky by Fyodor Dostoevsky

reflective slow-paced

Writing that speaks from both sides of the coin is rare, or at least rarely done with the kind of sincerity that invites reflection rather than instruction. Often, stories are laid out plainly, asking you to take them as they are. But in these short stories, Dostoevsky centers the anti-hero (figures steeped in vileness and vanity), yet he does not cast them aside. Instead, he gives them space, complexity, and most importantly, contradiction. Through these conflicted voices, he offers a lens that urges us to see things from multiple angles: how goodness and corruption can coexist, how truth is never singular, and how every reader must arrive at their own conclusion. Dostoevsky never spoon-feeds us; he trusts in our ability to wrestle with the ambiguity. It’s not nihilism that he offers, but rather the raw materials of life itself—the anguish, the tension, the flickers of grace. And maybe that’s the point: you have to walk through despair to recognize a blessing when it arrives. That’s what makes his work so enduringly meaningful.