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A Curse on Dostoevsky

Atiq Rahimi

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Feb 08, 2024 Tony rated it it was ok

Shelves: translated-fiction, crime, novels, setting-asia

I've never read Dostoevsky's classic "Crime and Punishment," but it's clear this Afghan novel is very much "in conversation" with it, as they say. As best I can tell it's not quite a reimagining or recasting, although the action and many characters have parallels with the Russian work. The book revolves around Rassoul, a young man who has returned to Kabul from studying Russian literature in Leningrad. The Russians have recently withdrawn from the country, and the city is riven by fighting betwe I've never read Dostoevsky's classic "Crime and Punishment," but it's clear this Afghan novel is very much "in conversation" with it, as they say. As best I can tell it's not quite a reimagining or recasting, although the action and many characters have parallels with the Russian work. The book revolves around Rassoul, a young man who has returned to Kabul from studying Russian literature in Leningrad. The Russians have recently withdrawn from the country, and the city is riven by fighting between various Afghan warlords vying for control.

The story opens with Rassoul's murder of an older woman who was a pawnbroker and madam, grooming his beloved for life as a prostitute. Struck mute by his bloody deed, he panics and flees the scene, and spends the rest of the book inside his thoughts, trying to make sense of his act. Rassoul drifts around the city, ducking in and out of hashish parlors, tea shops, the headquarters of commanders, his cousin's office, his fiance's house, a holy place, his own squalid apartment, and eventually prison. All the while, the lines between reality and hallucination remain blurred. Either way, the book is suffused with the trauma of a community in the midst of tearing itself apart in the wake of the Soviet departure.

I have no idea quite how much of his wanderings correspond to the storyline of Crime and Punishment, but his inability to speak for a large part of the story makes for a tough read. It's also a little strained in the sense that so many people seem to love him -- his fiance and her family, his cousin, his landlord's wife, the guys at the hashish house, one of the warlords, etc. But he's so aimless (and mute) for the bulk of the story that it's hard to fathom why people respond so positively to him -- unless the idea is that everyone loves a mute because you can just project your own thoughts onto them? Can't say that this novel really worked for me, but at some point I will probably get around to reading Crime and Punishment, and that might cast it in a different light. ...more

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