I remember when I started to read this book (last year, perhaps the year before) that it seemed like it was going to be a complicated one. It wasn’t really as complicated as I had feared. The main complication for me was keeping track of the names of the people – I found it very difficult at times to figure who was talking about whom. Fortunately, I had a friend who explained to me that Russian people can have multiple names, and the names are formulated a little differently than the style that I’m used to.
If it’s not obvious, I read a translated version – unfortunately, I do not have the name of the translator to hand. The translation was good – I don’t think I can fault that at all.
Another part of the story that I found confusing was the passing of time. I imagined more time had passed between things happening, yet, only a few hours had. I am not sure if that was because I had put the book down for a week or two at a time between readings, or because the story itself was confusing in this regard. Though, to be honest, the ‘illness’ of the character may have been to blame for this confusion, which may have been intentional.
The story was a unique one for me. I’m not sure how much of this story is common knowledge, but, to me, none of it was. I therefore don’t want to give anything away. The main character in the book is a Raskolnikov, a poor student, who appears to be a little unhinged, intelligent, and very proud. I found it difficult to like the main character, yet, IÂ still kept hoping he’d find a way out.
The essay he had written on extraordinary people, which came up mid way through the story was really very interesting in itself, even outside of the book.
This really is a great story, and one that should be read. I enjoyed reading it a lot, even with the confusion of the names and timeframes.