Two stars = I see its merits but it's not for me. Yes, I see how this is a literary achievement. No, I did not overall enjoy reading it.

Extremely mild spoilers below.

I listened to the second half of this, which I think is the sole reason I made it through this book. The writing was fine, but the stream of consciousness and monologues came through way way better on audiobook. The narrator added intonations j wouldn't have picked up on myself and gave the scenes a lot more life. As such, my main issues with this book are largely plot based.

This was my second Dostoyevsky, and I feel the same way about this as I did about humiliated and insulted: I liked the writing, some side characters, and a few plot points but the main content of the book irritated the living daylights out of me. But let me get to the point: Raskolnikov was down right insufferable, as were many of the characters that flocked to him. The parts I did enjoy were the cat and mouse game and trying to reconcile how Sonya can be *that* shy and awkward along with making the terrible choice of basically saying "sure Rodya killed two people including my friend but he gave my stepmom money and has been nice to me and stuff so I guess we're in love now and I'll wait for him for 7 years while he's in prison".

It's possible I just don't get it. It's also possible my polish roots make it harder for me to enjoy Russian literature. But all I really got out of this book was "Does committing a murder make someone a murderer?". The answer leans towards "ehhhh not really if the victims didn't matter as people and if he feels bad about it and reaches puppies from burning buildings". That said, I'm curious enough about the impact of this book to now go and read a bunch of reviews and analyses, so I guess that counts for something.


On a final note: had anyone written "cringe and punishment 2: the return of raskolnikov"? I want to see how Sonya's waiting unfolds.