Notes from the Underground is described on the back cover as a 'short novel' - however, whilst the print only covers 110 pages, short is the last word I would use to describe the novel. Whilst it's not an entirely bad book, it took an age to trawl through.
Focusing on the insane ramblings of the narrator - the man known as Underground Man - the novel takes two parts, the first a thought process completely devoid of narrative, and the second a sort-of-story that's still pretty mental.
Essentially, in the book, Dostoyevsky wanted to get across to the reader some of the complicated feelings and ideas that surround the philosophical area of existentialism - and that's cool with me. But his choice of narrator, in my eyes, is where he makes his big mistake. Because to convey these complicated ideas, Dostoyevsky chose a man who has been underground for forty years, and doesn't really know how to explain because he doesn't write.
Go figure.
A good read if you're really interested in existentialism, but a painful torture if you're anything less than interested in it.
Pages: 110
Bottom Line: Deep philosophy attempted by a bitter hermit who doesn't really know how to write anyway.
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