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pzdrnk's reviews
13 reviews
White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky
5.0
Soul-stirring
White Nights is a short story that beautifully captures the depths of unrequited love, tinged with romance and melancholy. Dostoyevsky masterfully depicts loneliness and suffering, highlighting the duality between the sadness of living alone and the strange beauty that can emerge from it—the freedom to escape into one's dreams and idealize the past.
The story unfolds as the lonely narrator encounters a young girl in distress one fateful night. Their shared feelings of alienation, their bond, and their introspective musings form the heart of the tale. But when reality inevitably intrudes, our protagonist faces the truth with quiet resignation.
What I loved most about this story is how Dostoyevsky so vividly portrays the complex spectrum of human emotions. Definitely one of my favourites.
White Nights is a short story that beautifully captures the depths of unrequited love, tinged with romance and melancholy. Dostoyevsky masterfully depicts loneliness and suffering, highlighting the duality between the sadness of living alone and the strange beauty that can emerge from it—the freedom to escape into one's dreams and idealize the past.
The story unfolds as the lonely narrator encounters a young girl in distress one fateful night. Their shared feelings of alienation, their bond, and their introspective musings form the heart of the tale. But when reality inevitably intrudes, our protagonist faces the truth with quiet resignation.
What I loved most about this story is how Dostoyevsky so vividly portrays the complex spectrum of human emotions. Definitely one of my favourites.
Normal People by Sally Rooney
2.5
Hope they discover in the future that there is such a thing as couples therapy. Already praying for their shrink.
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
5.0
Dostoyevsky pulls you into a world of futility and resentment, and somehow, it’s strangely beautiful.
It feels almost ironic to call a novel with such heavy themes "beautiful," but The Brothers Karamazov surprised me with the emotions it stirred. Dostoyevsky digs deep into religious and societal questions while showing how unpredictable love and family can be. This book is a long journey, but it’s packed with the kind of moral depth that makes you lose track of time as the pages fly by.
It feels almost ironic to call a novel with such heavy themes "beautiful," but The Brothers Karamazov surprised me with the emotions it stirred. Dostoyevsky digs deep into religious and societal questions while showing how unpredictable love and family can be. This book is a long journey, but it’s packed with the kind of moral depth that makes you lose track of time as the pages fly by.
Each character has a purpose, and every brother is a personality you’ll want to explore. The story keeps you hooked with new questions and answers at every turn, and by the end, you’re left with a whirlwind of emotions.
Yes, it’s a long read, but totally worth it.
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa
3.75
A simple and delicate story; an unexpectedly beautiful and gracefully written book; a great summer pastime for those who love books, unexpected encounters and for those who need a break from everyday routine to listen to their souls :)
I liked the cinematic speed of the narration, the author's ability to delineate the characters' types with just a few strokes of the pen, and to describe the different environments without too many frills but, on the contrary, with an all-Japanese minimalist simplicity.
I liked the cinematic speed of the narration, the author's ability to delineate the characters' types with just a few strokes of the pen, and to describe the different environments without too many frills but, on the contrary, with an all-Japanese minimalist simplicity.
Letter to His Father by Franz Kafka
5.0
Reading Kafka's Letter to His Father felt like being a psychotherapist with Kafka on the couch, listening to his innermost thoughts. Or perhaps more like an imposter, sneaking into his house, rifling through his drawers for a diary, and flipping through its pages hungrily, knowing you shouldn't. The letter wasn’t intended for publication—Kafka’s last wish was for his entire body of work to be burned. In fact, I’m not even sure the letter was truly meant for his father. It was handed to his mother, who chose not to pass it on. In my view, Kafka wrote this letter more for himself, as a way to unburden his soul.
Regardless of Kafka’s motives, reading this letter—whether before delving into his other works or after—opens both your eyes and your heart. It gives you a key to understanding his entire opus, and perhaps, his genius. Much like his novels The Trial, The Castle, or Metamorphosis, the letter exudes a blend of helplessness, sadness, confusion, fatalism, weakness, and fear—all conveyed with a passive, defeatist tone. As you turn the pages, this complex mix of emotions seeps into you like water into a sponge—slowly, pervasively, and irrevocably.
The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell
1.0
I can't overstate how overwritten and underresearched this book is. I only finished it in the hope that it might redeem itself at some point, as I quite enjoyed reading Cultish earlier this year. The author's voice feels very different in this one, it's as if she came up with a few generally popular topics and then asked someone else to write a few uninspired pages building on those. The leaps she makes are eye-roll worthy. There is almost as much talk of cults as in her actual book about cults. Some of the chapters could literally have been essays I'd have written for uni with lots of big empty words, making up the word count as best I could.