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A review by jlkenneth
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
5.0
Brilliant. Truly, wonderfully, brilliant.
This just might be a perfect novel. It’s probably not one that everyone will appreciate, because stylistically, tonally, and in the manner the plot progresses, it takes some getting used to. But this is a book that has absolutely everything: Murder, psychological breakdown, vivid and haunting dreams, betrayal, sex scandals, a whole series of doubles and mirrored character situations, marital affairs, dramatic irony, characters listening at doors, suicide, insanity, delirium - you name it, Crime and Punishment probably has it.
This is the story of a murder and the subsequent fallouts, and a fascinating exploration of modernity’s arrival in a deeply religious country. The main character will commit the crime in the first 100 pages; what follows is the psychological and social breakdown of his life. The characters for me were what sold me on this book. In Dostoevsky, every idea or philosophy has a human face - and the author is grappling with some huge notions here. The result is a St. Petersburg peopled with characters who feel at once archetypal and incredibly singular. I won’t forget these folks for a long time. The ideas he’s dealing with also feel incredibly contemporary despite the novel’s 19th century context. The question of whether greatness and success necessitates crime (does the difference between the extraordinary and the average lie in one’s willingness to follow through in committing crimes?) is one I feel I’ve encountered many times in the modern era. Raskolnikov as a character feels so incredibly relevant to the contemporary American willingness to do whatever we’ve decided to do, it was a bit shocking.
Dostoevsky was also a huge inspiration to many of the modernists, and given the shifts he makes in perspective and narrative here, I can absolutely see why. This novel felt incredibly ahead of its time in terms of narrative structure.
Also, one of the only mentions of America came when a character says to Raskolnikov, “If you think listening at doors is wicked but have no issue with hitting two old women over the head with an ax, you’d better up and move to America.” 1864, people, and that’s what the good ol USA was known for
This just might be a perfect novel. It’s probably not one that everyone will appreciate, because stylistically, tonally, and in the manner the plot progresses, it takes some getting used to. But this is a book that has absolutely everything: Murder, psychological breakdown, vivid and haunting dreams, betrayal, sex scandals, a whole series of doubles and mirrored character situations, marital affairs, dramatic irony, characters listening at doors, suicide, insanity, delirium - you name it, Crime and Punishment probably has it.
This is the story of a murder and the subsequent fallouts, and a fascinating exploration of modernity’s arrival in a deeply religious country. The main character will commit the crime in the first 100 pages; what follows is the psychological and social breakdown of his life. The characters for me were what sold me on this book. In Dostoevsky, every idea or philosophy has a human face - and the author is grappling with some huge notions here. The result is a St. Petersburg peopled with characters who feel at once archetypal and incredibly singular. I won’t forget these folks for a long time. The ideas he’s dealing with also feel incredibly contemporary despite the novel’s 19th century context. The question of whether greatness and success necessitates crime (does the difference between the extraordinary and the average lie in one’s willingness to follow through in committing crimes?) is one I feel I’ve encountered many times in the modern era. Raskolnikov as a character feels so incredibly relevant to the contemporary American willingness to do whatever we’ve decided to do, it was a bit shocking.
Dostoevsky was also a huge inspiration to many of the modernists, and given the shifts he makes in perspective and narrative here, I can absolutely see why. This novel felt incredibly ahead of its time in terms of narrative structure.
Also, one of the only mentions of America came when a character says to Raskolnikov, “If you think listening at doors is wicked but have no issue with hitting two old women over the head with an ax, you’d better up and move to America.” 1864, people, and that’s what the good ol USA was known for