It's become evident that I'm not going to be able to review Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment without giving away a few spoilers. It was a ridiculously plotted out book disguised as some sort of character study, but I just didn't believe it. None of it made any logical sense, and maybe that was my fault for not understanding the main character's actions. I mean, I got his motivations, but I half-expected Tonya Harding and Leif Garrett to come out and begin explaining what I just read like a clip from The Smoking Gun's Dumbest Criminals show.
Raskolnikov is a poor student living in the Russian capital of St. Petersburg. He goes days without eating and is about to be evicted. He is going to see an old woman to whom he had previously pawned a ring. He has his father's watch and needs more money, but is using the visit as an excuse to stake out her business as he intends to take from her.
After leaving, he goes to have a drink and meets Marmeladov, who's drunk and chatty. When Raskolnikov helps Marmeladov home and sees the squalor, he gives all the money he has (which isn't much as he was ripped off by the old woman) and leaves for home, poorer than before.
Arriving home, his own landlady threatens him with police action if he doesn't pay his rent. To make matters worse, he receives a letter from his mother that suggests his sister is to marry an older gentleman she doesn't love, for security.
Raskolnikov decides he must carry out his plan of not only stealing from the pawnbroker, but murdering her as well! He makes a small noose inside his coat for concealing an ax, makes a fake parcel to gain entry into the old woman's home, and decides to carry out his plan when he is sure the old woman's sister won't be visiting.
Look, he kills her. And when her sister shows up unannounced, he takes his ax and fucks her up too. We all knew it was coming. But what brought my hatred to a boil was having to spend the rest of the book watching Raskolnikov waver between harsh mood swings of guilt over the murders, unrepentant behaviors, falling in love with Sonya, Marmeladov's daughter (aka Hooker with the Heart of Gold, or Heather Graham), and police-y cat-and-mouse games.
With every step Raskolnikov makes, I wanted to throw the book to the ground.
And *BIG SPOILER* when he turns himself in and spend only 7 years for the pre-meditated murders/robbery, while Sonya waits for him, I vomited a little. A piece of my lunch is still inside the back cover and some librarian isn't going to be happy either.
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At least you finished. I got a B+ on an exam covering this book and skipped about 400 pages.
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of disappointed - I'd always meant to read this one.
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Iran, I was so desperate to get my hands on English books, I'd read anything (including Barbara Cartland novels). I got a hold of this book and honestly felt like I was being punished. It's one of two books I've started and never finished. Congratulations on finishing it and surviving Russian literature.
ReplyDeleteHello! It's called Crime and Punishment. Oh wait! You didn't know you were the one being punished?? Lol. I'm sorry you had such a bad time with it, but that was the funniest review of a book considered a "classic" that I've ever read. Ever. Thank you for the mad giggles!!
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That's why it's called Crime and Punishment... you're being punished for the crime of reading it. HA!
ReplyDeleteThis is one I'll probably never touch, to be honest. I think I've read some of the Russians, though I did think Edith Wharton was Russian for a while there, so... maybe not. I know I've started stupid Anna Karenina at least 4 times and never finished it. I think I got halfway, once. That's on my CBR list. I kind of look at it with a mixture of dread and determination. I'm pretty sure it's mocking me. Sitting there, on the bookshelf, staring, mocking. "Look at me, all big and fat and Russian. You'll never finish me. Again." I'll show that douchebag book!
Wait, what? Where am I? Are you my mother? What's going on here?
I had a similar reaction when I had to read this for high school English - shit, if you're going to be a murderer, that's fine, just be fucking competent about it. I watch Dexter, obviously I don't have a problem with the antihero thing. I would have killed the protagonist myself given the chance. However, every time I mentioned my hatred of this book to people, they were like, "oh, it's supposed to make you think" and "well he has a conscience" or "I liked it" - I'm so happy to finally see a few intelligent people that read it and hated it.
ReplyDeleteWhile I think Tolstoy is longwinded and can get a little preachy, too, I definitely would take him over Dostoevsky any day.