A review by driish
A Faint Heart by Fyodor Dostoevsky

lighthearted sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This short book was interesting in terms of the message that the author tried to question. The writing of this book was easy to understand and didn’t feel clunky at all. Even if the book felt slow and a little stagnant, it still had good pacing, distinguished characters and a dreamlike atmosphere, but also weird. The story itself felt average, although the conversation between the friends was lively and raw. At first, I thought that Vasya changed to a person who is so absorbed with his love that he forgets his needs and identity. Although, this aspect is still worthy to discuss as he showed brief signs of this.

The main point of this book is Vasya’s change – from extreme happiness to insanity. Vasya became afraid of being happy, which is a very human thing to feel. It felt that he didn’t truly know the meaning of being happy, it seemed foreign, hence making him scared. Vasya’s act of pushing his friend away may have seem dismissive and cruel, although, it might have felt silly to him to be worrying of such thing. This led to him closing off to everyone around him and started faking his smiles and towards his commitment to his work. Vasya couldn’t handle happiness because he never felt such, and as much as he tried, he drowned in himself.

Overall, a very meaningful and raw story that touches something that is not very discussed. The author posed a question about the avoidants and about people who are afraid of commitment. If Vasya had chosen to live, then he would eventually break his and his girl’s heart, because he was afraid of the unknown outcome. Although, the message is memorable, I feel like the story and the characters are not. But it was an interesting story.