“I am a sick man. I am a spiteful man.” This is how Notes from Underground starts and it is rephrased ad nauseam throughout the book. This novella is segmented into two “chapters” as it is called within the work. In the first “chapter” the unnamed narrator describes his philosophy on life, and particularly suffering, in a crass egotistical tone, painting all of humanity as masochists that require pain so as to elicit sympathy from others and distract from “real life”. This is why the narrator lives in “the underground”: a euphemism to describe his separation from society. I found this fist “chapter”, which is really the first half of the book, to be the more interesting of the two. Although the narrator is “a blackguard, a scoundrel, an egoist, [and] a sluggard”, I felt that Dostoyevsky tapped into something that is truly human—suffering. Even though the narrator is such a foul creator, I felt empathy for his emotions—although he lives for the love of suffering. The novella is said to explain the narrators philosophy on life and regrettable past events, but it should be noted that this work is truly a character study.

The second “chapter” is a recounting of a small series of events that happened fifteen years prior—from the vantage point of the forty year old narrator. The events, a diner with “school friends” and a harsh conversation and subsequent meeting with a prostitute, can be considered superfluous as it pertains to the story. These events help to illustrate the personality of the narrator and his inability to function in society—stumbling through social interactions with hostility as his only tool to rely on. He describes himself throughout the dialogue as a hero, but towards the end of the book he says that he is the quintessential antihero. The writing is honest, even from the viewpoint of the narrator, and isn’t shy in describing personal faults. Dostoyevsky takes an aspect of humanity and rips it from the darkness of social repression; that is to say that with this one character, the narrator, he shows all that is undesirable in humanity: spite, humiliation, egoism, vindictiveness, fear, shame, resentment, etc. Although the narrator takes pride in his proposed plight, his hostile nature belies this pride and shows the flawed reasoning in those that feel superior for their suffering.

I had to read this book in short segments, because I could take the uncomfortable nature of the narrator. The writing was fluid and would be accessible to most readers, but the subject matter and the main character may turn some off to the book. Segments of the book were akin to watching a frog slowly cook in a pot of boiling water. That said, I found the book to be beautifully ugly.

Dostoevsky always writes very interesting stories and this is just another one of them.

I had a hard time getting into this one until over halfway through but found it quite interesting and wonderful.

I have virtually no idea why this book is considered a classic. More of a "personal manifesto" than an actual story, this is a disjointed reasoning of why the narrator feels and acts so outlandishly. Though I can sympathize with some of his emotions on my very worst days, 'Notes' as a whole left me feeling exhausted and a little dull. The second part of the book does try to assume some semblance of a story, yet the other characters are hardly developed, the plot is weak, and the climax is wholly anticlimactic. The only saving grace is the scene with the prostitute, yet even that promise is not only not fulfilled, it is swept with disgust under the carpet. ( )

This book is broken into two parts.

The first part is the journal to the underground man - it completely blew me away... At times I would laugh at out loud at the madness of his logic, while other times I would be dumbfounded by his incredible line of thinking and view on the world/life.

Very few books make me question the way I think/rationalize like this book succeeded in doing.

The second part is a story of the underground man, showcasing his thoughts/actions from his journal in story form. I found this part to be a tad boring and drawn out, but interesting as it still held the same logic from the first part.

Overall, its verbiage is tough to read depending on the translation you get, and you have to pay extremely close attention - I had to re-read things multiple times to 'get it.' But this is not a book that you just want to finish, you really do want to 'get it.' So take the time to read it slowly, and find a quiet coffee house with minimal distractions, cause it will be worth it. ( )

A fast moving work of genius. ( )