I am intimidated by Russian authors. Terribly so. While I’ve had all the Russian greats on my “should read” list for ages, I’ve never of my own volition picked one up.<\/p>\n
But then I started talking with this man who said his favorite author was Dostoevsky. <\/p>\n
I felt anew my lack of culture and sophistication. I had never read Dostoevsky.<\/p>\n
I had a copy of Crime and Punishment<\/i> on my bookshelf. A friend had given it to me from his personal collection. He’d said when he gave it to me that he’d originally picked it up because a friend of his was a fan. He’d never read it and didn’t know that he would, so he passed it on to me.<\/p>\n
It sat on my bookshelf for four years, until the friend from whom I’d received it introduced me to the man who’d inspired him to get it in the first place.<\/p>\n
I didn’t read that copy of Crime and Punishment<\/i>. Instead, I downloaded a Project Gutenberg text to my Kindle and half-read, half-listened to it as I went about my daily tasks.<\/p>\n
I wondered, as I listened and read, what it was I had against Russian authors. <\/p>\n
If Dostoevsky is typical, there is no reason to fear. I found myself quickly engaged in the tortured mind of Rashkolnikov, a man who commits a crime to see if he if great and spends the rest of the book wrestling with what he’d found.<\/p>\n
Crime and Punishment<\/i> does have some of the qualities which I feared in Russian literature. The names are unfamiliar, hard for me to remember. The cast of characters is relatively large (around a dozen truly important characters). The topic is weighty, thought-provoking.<\/p>\n
But it is not a difficult read. It is nothing to be afraid of. It requires no slogging, no real effort to read. It is not work to read and enjoy.<\/p>\n
Although perhaps I transfer my relationship with the one who inspired me to read Dostoevsky to my reading of Dostoevsky himself. Perhaps I considered Dostoevsky engaging because I am so fascinated by the man who enjoys him. Perhaps I found Dostoevsky effortless because it is easy for me to want to know everything about Daniel.<\/p>\n
Perhaps your experience with Dostoevsky, not inspired by love as mine has been, will be different. But I dare you, fellow fearers, to give him a try. Perhaps you will be surprised, as I was, with how much you enjoyed this Russian great.<\/p>\n
And how’s that for a review? I fear my ability to write normally is much impaired, since every second word out of my mouth and pen is “Daniel, Daniel, Daniel”. Bear with me, dear reader, and someday, perhaps, I shall be able to organize my thoughts without having him in the middle. For now, every topic I think to write about is “Dostoevsky and Me…and Daniel”, “Children’s Sunday School…and Daniel”, “Quilting Progress, or lack thereof…and Daniel.” <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am intimidated by Russian authors. Terribly so. While I’ve had all the Russian greats on my “should read” list for ages, I’ve never of my own volition picked one up. But then I started talking with this man who said his favorite author was Dostoevsky. I felt anew my lack of culture and sophistication. … Read more Dostoevsky and Me<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10302"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10302\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}