Wood Goblin wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 12:25 pm
Anyway, my youngest is reading Crime and Punishment for her English class. I last read that one in college, thirty years ago. At the time, it felt brilliant. I couldn’t put it down.

Reading it now, and . . . it’s not that good. The characters are two dimensional, the dialogue never once sounds like a human spoke it (or thought it, if you count internal dialogue), and it’s needlessly descriptive. It’s not terrible by any stretch; it just reads like a typical 19th century novel in a way that Tolstoy and Melville didn’t.

C & P is my least favorite Dostoyevsky. So far, Devils//Demons/Possessed is my favorite, but I am reading The Idiot and enjoying it.

I love Crime and Punishment, mostly for the paranoia you could cut with a knife. 2D characters, maybe, but the guy is losing his shit. I could imagine his neighbors checking in on him being shot in a tragicomic grotesque Terry Gilliam style.

I’ve heard people go up and downs on this or that translation, with Russian authors being particularly underserved, but I have no opinion there.

this is the month i finally finish anna karenina. one hour daily will do it.

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 1:47 pm I love Crime and Punishment, mostly for the paranoia you could cut with a knife. 2D characters, maybe, but the guy is losing his shit. I could imagine his neighbors checking in on him being shot in a tragicomic grotesque Terry Gilliam style.

I’ve heard people go up and downs on this or that translation, with Russian authors being particularly underserved, but I have no opinion there.

That’s the stuff that really landed the first time I read it but isn’t this time. Same translation both times too—it has my college-class notes in the margin.

Interestingly, Dostoyevsky isn’t particularly esteemed in Russia.

I just finished a re-read of The Brothers Karamazov. The only big one I have left to read and sitting on my desk is Demons. One day! The Idiot is probably my favorite of his, and I still don't know why there's a vegetarian restaurant in Munich named Prince Myshkin. Other than the owners wanting to exhibit a smug sense of superiority or something.

Creation Lake - Rachel Kushner

- excellent book- highly recommend

I'm almost finished with The Adventures of Amina-Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty, picked up from the Hugo awards. It's a kind of fantasy sci-fi about a female pirate from the Arabic Gulf, based in the times of the Indian Empire when trade relied on the winds. It has a lot of Arabic culture woven into it.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/612 ... -al-sirafi

I also highly recommend "How to Stand Up To A Dictator" by Maria Rezza, nobel prize winner. I saw her speak at The Ubud Writers Festival in Bali and it was brilliant. It deals with social media and perhaps the most important issue of our time.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/582 ... sb_ss_1_18

Add me on goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/192 ... ke-walczak

Iancee wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2025 4:56 am Creation Lake - Rachel Kushner

- excellent book- highly recommend

This was pretty good. It had that very "existentialist french novel" kind of feel. I enjoyed "Orbital" and "James" from the Booker award winners better.

Liz Pelly's book about Spotify, Mood Machine. It's good.

The Vegetarian : Han Kang

Many strong impressions.