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The book that I will be reviewing is the classic novel Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. This book deserves to be a classic because of Dostoyevsky’s ability to describe the action vividly so that the reader always has a clear picture in his or her mind. The characters are as complicated as real people. You end up feeling like you’ve known these people your whole life. It’s also a book full of ideas, such as how people fit in society and whether redemption is possible after a horrible crime.
This book is for strong readers. If you try to skim it, you’ll only understand that a number of people die, and it will turn to be an extremely sad and boring book. Because the characters are so complicated, and the book takes place in the 1800’s in Russia, you have to pay close attention and you have to work to put your mind in the characters’ places. This book exceeded all of my expectations. It includes a strange but intriguing plot, one that you wouldn’t expect from a simple murder story. Because you feel for the characters, it is sad, touching, and probably the best book I have ever read .
This starts slowly and seems boring until the poor student Raskolnikov murders a pawnbroker he despises and her sister, who unfortunately witnessed the crime. But this is a tale that will appeal to boys with its suspense, and girls for its tenderness and drama. Everyone will wonder if Raskolnikov will be caught, confess, or get away with his crime. Anyone would be touched by the scene when Svidrigaylov find a young girl, freezing and wet, hiding from her drunken mother just because the poor girl broke a cup but is this girl really innocent or just another drunken clone of her mother? The book has a twist and turns in almost every page you read and the more you read the more it makes you think and the more questions you will have, next thing you know you are into a domino effect where you read page after page because you just can’t put the book down you are wondering, what will happen next? The book has classic questions you will ask like what happened to the little girl and not so classic questions why did he use an axe or almost any other abnormal question you can think of.
I enjoy strange tales with black (not the race) humor but this was a tragedy with a twist, spin, and flair added to it because you end up rooting for the murderer who you usually think that he did a crime and he should pay for what he has done, Fyodor Dostoyevsky truly makes you feel for the character that otherwise you would see as a cold blooded person that should be locked up for the rest of his life. Russia seems to be the saddest place for Raskolnikov, a young student with to much on his hands with the death of his father, Mrs. Marmeladov, Mr. Marmeladov, and the two women he murdered after complete insanity took a hold of him.
Raskolnikov meets a young thin girl who seems malnourished at best Miss. Marmeladov or as he knows her Sonia is a girl that shares Raskolnikov’s pain with the death of her two parents, recently orphaned Sonia becomes comfortable with Raskolnikov after her father died by being ran over by a carriage steered by two very young and spooked gray stallions. But as Sonia grows closer to Raskolnikov do they both wish to be more than just friends? Do they have feelings for each other or is it just a short flame bound to go out? When no one else seems like they will understand will Raskolnikov confess to Sonia about the evil deed he has done but even if he dose will she be so shocked that she will not be able to keep it from the local authority? When all other people seem to have the will to deceive Raskolnikov and turn him in he seeks Sonia to lay his head on but might not tell her the truth about what really happened the night of the murder of the beloved friend of Sonia and the friend’s sister, the pawnbroker who even before the murder had a vendetta held by Raskolnikov for her giving him the wrong amount of money on purpose for one thing he really held dear to him.
This is such an amazing book for about ages 11 and up it is a very sad book but is all worth it in the end because you can look back when you have kids and say “I read that book when I was about your age,†and watch them read that book with as much enjoyment as you did when you read the book. This one book has surpassed every book I have ever read in my life and to me Fyodor Dostoyevsky is the greatest writer in all time (besides my dad).
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