Review: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT by Fyodor Dostoevsky published by Bantam Books, my copy form 2003. The original book was published in 1866.

When I was in high school, __ years ago I took a course entitled "Soviet Studies." In this course I heard about this author and others like Solzhenitsyn  spent who spent time in Siberia, many for their political beliefs or writings. You just did not expose people to the possibility that something might be
amiss in Russia. We were required to read and do a book report on one of these authors, I chose the book ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH by Solzhenitsyn. A book that was much easier to get through than this book, mainly due to length. Both books are very impressive.

I think my hardest time with this book is rudimentary at best, the names and my confusion at times on who was speaking and who they were speaking to, for instance Raskolnikov has a friend whom he calls Razuhumin, but somewhere in the middle of the book he becomes Dmitri and that goes back and forth on who is speaking and how they are speaking of this friend. I had to get used to the familiar as well as the formal names, which changed sometimes in the middle of dialog. Also most people were discussed using their first and  middle (or unmarried names), such as four people with the name Ivanovitch. That was a fundamental problem.

About the story I was wondering who to champion, We have a murder by a man who thinks simply that a person's life is not worth anything if they are hurting others. He has written a paper about Napoleon and the people who are of impressive character who commit crimes and should be allowed to simply on their strength of character. When he commits the murder, he feels he is perfectly justified because he feels the old woman pawnbroker is stealing from people, of which he is one. He was a student who left university and is living in St. Petersburg's slum district. He has pawned some items with this old woman. When he kills her, he himself is in a frenzy and sinks into delirium, realizing that he must get rid of evidence. which he does not even bothering to look at what he has stolen from the pawnbroker. From this point on we have his conflict not only with self, but with how others perceive him, turning away from anyone who shows him the slightest concern.

I could go on forever and dissect the whole book, but then why would you read it. If you are interested in this time period, the politics of the time and the human condition in Russia, then read this book. It is long, but well written. So I asked a question who do I champion, I feel bad for Raskolnikov but he did kill two people, but his character is written so that you must really believe he had temporary insanity, but not quite. Then there is his friend Razuhumin, who wants to fix him and shows genuine concern. The lawyer who you get the feeling is someone you want to punch, but he is on Raskolnikov's trail the whole time. Then there are all the women who have to deal with these less than stellar people. The women who have to pick up the pieces of their broken lives to keep the men and their families going. Especially, the ones who turn to prostitution to feed the family.

A book that you should read, there are many similarities in today's world: hunger resulting in crime, drugs, alcohol and selling your soul for a lively hood.  Great book.