Caleb

I enjoyed The Idiot nearly as much as Crime & Punishment, but it tends to meander a bit too much in certain sections for it to be quite as great in my view. It feels very personal in the sense that many elements are taken from Dostoevsky's life, such as The Prince's odd obsession with executions and his recounting of a false execution nearly identical to his own. There are a lot of historical and obscure literary references that are covered in my editions footnotes which was quite helpful. An interesting note from the introduction of my edition: There is less of a sense of place in The Idiot as in Crime & Punishment as Dostoevsky was living abroad to escape creditors while writing it.

Although Dostoevsky viewed the Prince as a pure and Christ-Like figure, someone who is utterly innocent and pure, it was difficult for me to see him as such. Yes, he is generally a good person who has pure intentions, but he doesn't really actively try to do any good in the world. His pureness stems more from his naivety and honesty as well as his inability to recognize the ill intent of those around him. Can this really be considered the image of perfect goodness? It's a good question and Lev Myshkin is an excellent character, but it was hard for me to see him as anything more than a stand up guy in an otherwise cynical and pompous world of aristocracy.

Set in an absolutely bonkers world where people have special powers like precognition, mind reading, etc which are corporatized in order to provide advantages in business. Thus there are also people with powers that can block these other powers which is also corporatized. Also people can exist in a state between life and death called half life and everything is coin operated, including doors and fridges. Plot wise this story is full of twists and mind bending mystery. It’s my favorite of PKD as of yet.

The battle royal section (chapter one) is a masterpiece and maybe the greatest thing I've ever read. I honestly can't believe that this was published in the 50s. Everything about this book is so groundbreaking, from the ideas it presents to the style of writing and storytelling itself. Much of the story feels almost dreamlike, especially the battle royal section which is almost surreal in its telling. That section is just so powerful, disturbing, and visceral, I cannot give it justice. Can't say enough great things about this book, it is a new favorite for me.

Sometimes really good and sometimes infuriating and boring. The main character has a tendency to be the most insufferable incel freak loser I've ever seen in a book but manages to still have his likable moments. I preferred the books that took place in Unthank, especially book 3.

Took me a little while to get into this but once i got into it I was very into it. The whole thing is very harrowing but the last third is especially hard hitting. Sarah's story is particularly tragic just because she never really fully understands what's happening to her. Also her “treatment” is by far the most disturbing part of the book.

The dialogue isn't split up at all which took some getting used to but selby gives each character such a unique voice that after awhile it gets pretty easy to tell who's talking. His dialogue for black characters can seem very stereotypical at times but I think part of that is done to differentiate the voices of the characters.