Here It Is, Here It Is At Last, the Encounter With Reality. . . All Is Lost Now!

As I mentioned in my review of The Bell Jar, I greatly appreciate an author that can write an interesting and convincing first-person narrative. To date, I have scarcely read one more engaging that Dostoevsky's Notes From the Underground. What impressed me most about this short novel was Dostoevsky's ability to completely change my opinion of his main character half-way through. For those who know me well, this may come as a surprise.

I began the story highly irritated by the Underground Man. His constant contradictions make him a remarkably unreliable narrator. While this is part of the point of his character, it annoyed me nonetheless. In the second half of the story, when the mask of his insincerity begins to fall apart, I suddenly found myself completely sympathetic to him. His narrative truly is tragic and his character's evolution highlights Dostoevsky's mastery as a writer. Coming in at less than 200 pages, there's really no excuse for you not to read it! I give it an A.

70 down, 931 to go!

"Beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man." (Fyodor Dostoevsky)