And yes, I broke almost all of the points listed on my New Year's Checklist. My apologies.
Anyway, I was assigned to read Crime and Punishment for my IB English class and although it was cool to be learning about Russian literature, I had to trudge my way through the denseness in this book that so often put me to sleep. You're essentially in the mind of a killer and taken through the journey of guilt eating you from the inside out. (There were a lot of prepositions in that previous sentence, please ignore them.) First of all, the names take a bit of getting used to: Raskolnikov, Svidrigailov, Razumihin, Pulcheria, they all sound like a type of exotic fruit. After the first 60 pages or so, however, you get used to it. The next challenge would then be your ability to stay awake through the explanations of abstract ideas. For example, Raskolnikov, the main character, has a theory about humans being separated into either the "ordinary" or the "extraordinary" and how these labels play a crucial part in the advancement of society and the justification of breaking the law. That whole section took me about three times to read over because I did not understand what the hell they were trying to say. Dostoyevsky does a good job of manipulating the readers into sympathizing with characters that would typically be seen as antagonists. In fact, almost all of his characters were very complex and elicited a strong emotion of either hatred, pity, or admiration at one point or another. I don't know if it's because the work load was relatively heavy or if it's because the book is really meant for more highly intellectual minds, but I found myself getting more frustrated than interested throughout the book. However, I do feel really accomplished to have finished this novel. It definitely would not have been something I would have picked up on my own, so I'm glad that I was exposed to a new type of literature.
Goodreads summary: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7144.Crime_and_Punishment?from_search=true&search_version=service
Rating: 3/5
No comments:
Post a Comment