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A review by david_rhee
What Is to Be Done? by Nikolai Chernyshevsky
3.0
I was expecting a lot from What is to be Done? naturally because of the buzz this book caused around its time. I can put it down finally with only mixed feelings about it. I suppose the book struck a chord loudly with those of its time, and as much as we present day "readers with penetrating eyes" wish to be struck with the same impact I believe we can only pretend to be so. If a book is not written for you and only you, there's only so much you can take away from it. I don't resolve to pretend to be anything more than an outsider in this case, but there are certain sentiments relevant to any shift in the times found in these words that one can take to heart genuinely.
My biggest issue with the book is its flow. This novel has increased in me a consciousness of a "current" in narratives. One can tell a novelist is skilled if his flow of words carries the reader through. Chernyshevsky is not a novelist in this sense. He is more accurately a philosopher who attempted to make the novel his medium...which is fine because he tread ground on which many giants were lurking (Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy). If anything, it can be called courageous, but the reading is made more laborious because of it. I was swept by Turgenev's narrative. With Chernyshevsky, I felt as though I were dragging myself through.
Like other utopian portraits, the picture can become too idealistic to be believable (looking right at you, Edward Bellamy). Chernyshevsky knows this and makes it a point to insist his characters are normal ordinary people (thus intending to spur his people themselves to go forward rather than to wait for others). I would really like to believe in Vera's dressmaking shop but I just can't. It seems modeled after Tawney's acquisitive society but I gather it's a product of Fourier, especially the commune living element. The incorporation of classical education into work-life?...doubtful. Again, I'd like to believe but experience tells me the life of work and that of education are sharply divided. The same issue with credulity happens with the character of Kirsanoff especially late in the novel.
To summarize, this is a good book with a lot of gems to unearth even if one is not the intended recipient of its message...but a choppy narrative and a lot of dialogue which can leave one backtracking often are constant hindrances to the reader's enjoyment of the work.
My biggest issue with the book is its flow. This novel has increased in me a consciousness of a "current" in narratives. One can tell a novelist is skilled if his flow of words carries the reader through. Chernyshevsky is not a novelist in this sense. He is more accurately a philosopher who attempted to make the novel his medium...which is fine because he tread ground on which many giants were lurking (Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy). If anything, it can be called courageous, but the reading is made more laborious because of it. I was swept by Turgenev's narrative. With Chernyshevsky, I felt as though I were dragging myself through.
Like other utopian portraits, the picture can become too idealistic to be believable (looking right at you, Edward Bellamy). Chernyshevsky knows this and makes it a point to insist his characters are normal ordinary people (thus intending to spur his people themselves to go forward rather than to wait for others). I would really like to believe in Vera's dressmaking shop but I just can't. It seems modeled after Tawney's acquisitive society but I gather it's a product of Fourier, especially the commune living element. The incorporation of classical education into work-life?...doubtful. Again, I'd like to believe but experience tells me the life of work and that of education are sharply divided. The same issue with credulity happens with the character of Kirsanoff especially late in the novel.
To summarize, this is a good book with a lot of gems to unearth even if one is not the intended recipient of its message...but a choppy narrative and a lot of dialogue which can leave one backtracking often are constant hindrances to the reader's enjoyment of the work.