Book review: Crime and Punishment

Mon, Jan 31 2022

I started reading this book on the same day that I finished Brothers Karamazov. Being ill and bedridden, I had plenty of time on my hands to delve into the psychological autopsy of the main character, carried out by Dostoevsky.

Reviewers all around the world claim that as far as psychological novels go, this one is by far the best. Naturally, then, I was looking forward to it.

But frankly, I got a bit disappointed. Not that there wasn't enough psychology. There was. Just not the kind I was expecting.

For those of you who don't know what this story is about (spoiler alert), it's about a murder. A murder and its consequences.

A poor, aimless fellow named Raskolnikov, decides, in his desolate room, that the best way to get rid of his poverty is to kill an old lady and steal her belongings. He carries out his plan, and, for a while, everything seems alright.

But there is this one thing, one tiny little thing. A liitle something he didn't count on, perhaps because he forgot it was one of his last possessions.

His conscience.

Combine a troubled conscience, poor health, and a series of inexorably hot summer days in St. Petersburg and you've got yourself a problem. What follows for young Raskolnikov is despair, disillusionment, and depression.

All of that is portrayed by Dostoevsky at length, without ever boring the reader. But realistic as this portrayal may be, I found myself only glossing over it, without the author properly engaging me and making the protagonist's pain my own.

Or maybe it was my fault. My own failure to empathize with this human being. Maybe I was too young and inexperienced to be able to grasp Raskolnikov's despair. Maybe my destiny was, fortunately, too distant and different from his.

Be it as it may, I found the book less enjoyable than its bigger, more mature sibling, The Brothers Karamazov.

Overall, it was a quality read, just not as deep as I imagined it would be. Still, I will recommend this book as an introduction to Russian existentialism, but I won't consider it its biggest achievement.