Success through murder

I guess for my first book, I will review the latest book I have read.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Difficult of read: 5/5 This book is a beast. The translation I had was a cheap Barnes and Noble copy, but with most Russian books, or any non-American book for that matter, getting through some of the cultural stuff and the names in particular can be a challenge. As an example, imagine not speaking English and reading a book in which the main character's name is Jonathon Macpherson. The nicknames used "johnny, John" are easy enough but if he is married and the wife calls him "sweety" or "buns" or he has friends that call him by a shortened version of his last name "J-mac" it would be difficult to sort out who is who. When you complicate things further because in other countries, such as Latin America (and maybe Russia) they have four names, it becomes very difficult. The content, however, was easy enough to follow.

Enjoyment: 4/5 This is considered by many to be Dostoevsky's masterpiece. It is my third Dostoevsky book, and I liked it well enough, but there was a lot to grasp here and perhaps reading it over the course of a month dimmed my enjoyment a bit.

The setting of St. Petersburg as Russia transistions from the upper-class dominated serf-system and into a more traditional middle-class environment creates a lot of tension and a lot of parallels to Russia today. You have people pining for the old days, people trying to get ahead, and others who want to transition into socialism.

In the midst of it all, the main character, Raskolikov, is a young student who is content to live in squallid conditions for most of the book, and yet has a scheme to put him up with the likes of Napolean. The basic question of the novel is two-fold: First, is individual success the highest achievement of life on earth? And second, why do we cherish many individuals who commit heinous crimes to get to the top once they are there?

Raskolikov's plan to murder an old woman for her money is nothing more than a stepping stone to greater things for him. He views the murder as less of a crime as he does a gift to humanity. Certainly the woman he killed was not a contributor to society, at least in his mind, so by killing her he is able to take her money and use it for the common good.

One of the interesting points about this book is Roskolnikov's love for his family and for a poor family in town. He is a genuinely good guy who makes a monumental mistake. At what point does society forgive him for his actions?

The more I write about this book, the better it gets upon reflection. I think my favorite parts of the book are his interaction with Sofia Semyonovna. She is a young girl who prostitutes herself to help her family. While most see her as a common street urchin, Roskolnikov falls in love immediately. Perhaps bound by their common desire to do good for those they love.

If you haven't read Dostoevsky before, I really can't reccomend it. I think there is a lot here that would turn off the average reader. But if you are intrigued, I reccomend first picking up a copy of Notes from Underground first to get a taste of the awesomeness that is Dostoevsky at his best. Then, settle in with this book. I can say this, after Notes from Underground, The Idiot, and now Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky puts himself way up on my list of favorite authors.

On another note:
Reading: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Listening to: Stardust by Willie Nelson
Random Site I love at the moment: Joshreads.com It is an awesome site if you like daily comics such as Garfield (which I don't) or if you completely dislike them but want snarky comments about them (which I do)