Krishna
A rather serious book that describes a fictional account of what happened in the life of Fyodor Mikailovich Dostoyevsky, the Russian dissident, when he visits Petersburg where his adopted son, Pavel Alexandrovich Isaev. In spite of his much younger wife and his fidelity to her, he engages in an affair with the landlady of his son’s apartment, Anna Kolenkina, and tangles with the notorious Nachaev.
I have heard it said that this is based on the life of Dostoevsky himself, with pieces borrowed from a banned chapter from his book called “At Tikhon’s”, as well as events borrowed from the life of the author. He loses his son in an accident very similar to that of Dostoevsky’s stepson, Pavel, in this story.
Even given all that, =the story makes no sense at times; for example, where he decides that releasing a stray dog and calling a beggar to the room to give him food is the way to reach his dead son and with his constant crying and sudden turn of moods, but then everyone else including the beggar behaves in the same odd way, so I guess it is “normal” in that fictional world.
I understand the need to talk about sombre topics but it does not need to be so convoluted as to appear pointless. The sudden drop into and out of the affair, the sudden meeting of Nachaev, and the convoluted attempts of Nachaev to make him write for the posters that Nachaev intends to publish, the sudden decision by Dostoevsky to ‘do it’ followed by a ‘no, I am not going to’….
Maybe I am too simplistic to understand the subtlety of the novel but can I give you a bit of advice?
Save yourself a lot of trouble by giving this one a miss, unless you are of the masochistic bent of mind to read a
convoluted novel in the name of a “weighty” subject
I would award this novel a 2/10
— Krishna