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Copy/paste the text below into your blog. <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7144.Crime_and_Punishment?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Crime and Punishment" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1201274754m/7144.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7144.Crime_and_Punishment?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Crime and Punishment</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3356.Fyodor_Dostoevsky">Fyodor Dostoevsky</a><br/><br/> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/19290676?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a> rating: 3 of 5 stars<br/>What I enjoyed about this book, and thought Dostoevsky did well, was exploring philosophical ideas and social movements without coming off as too didactic (cough cough Upton Sinclar cough cough). I wish I knew more about Petersburg during this era because I feel like I could get a lot more out of the novel with some more background information (although, for what book is this not true?). I thought that the reading of Lazarus scene between Sonya and Raskolnikov was totally awesome. I also really liked the character of Svidrigailov. <br/> <br/>My one main complaint is: was everyone in Petersburg at this time batshit insane?! For a book that is purportedly centered around the events of a reasoned crime, the main character (as an aside, props to Dostoevsky for coming up with THE best name for an anti-hero ever: Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, wayoh) seems pretty unhinged from the beginning. It seems too easy to pin his unraveling to this pre-existing condition, rather than the commission of the crime itself, which I felt was more of what Dostoevsky wanted to do. There is such an emphasis on reason (with one character's name, Razumikhin, actually MEANING reason), but it seems like every other page, someone is going into a "delirium." I think it would have been more powerful if Raskolnikov had been more detached, forward-thinking, and rational up until the crime. <br/> <br/>By the by, if you're thinking of picking up some Russian lit, I've really enjoyed the translators for this book (I read their version of the Master and Margarita as well): Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. They've been working through a lot of the classics. <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/924181?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>