Wednesday, February 16, 2011

5. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

What is it about Russian literature? Endless tangents, pointless introspection, extraneous characters, frustratingly similar names... no wonder this book took me a month. It didn't help that the copy I picked up at the library--the only copy--is considered a dated translation, carried out by a more or less amateur translator who glossed over complicated or poorly understood parts. Fantastic.

Both of my parents actually hated Crime and Punishment when they tried to read the Japanese translation, but several of my friends who had read an English translation claim that it is one of their favorite books. I'm inclined to stand somewhere in the middle--I'm glad I read the book, I almost agreed with some of Raskolnikov's theories on crime, and I actually warmed to some of the characters--but it is by far not my favorite book, and not even favored among the Russian novels that I've read.

I suppose I can elaborate on this at a later time, but the overwhelming amount of words and detail prevent me from properly sorting out my thoughts...

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