Readability

Brian Micklethwait says he's never quite got around to reading Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment and reminds me that neither have I. Years ago, I did read and enjoy The Devils though, and last year I read the novella Notes from Underground, which I didn't find a slog at all, but one of those rare "works of literature" that I found so easy to relate to it was a breeze to read. There's an essay by James Wood here at The New Republic that touches on the Underground Man. Some time ago Wood also wrote brilliantly about Knut Hamsun's book Hunger. Again, like with Notes from Underground, I read Hunger in a week. A lot quicker than I can usually get through a serious novel, and purely because I felt so in touch with the narrator's way of thinking. I like Wood's way of throwing light on this type of novel (and narrator) so much that I bought a copy of his own first novel, The Book Against God, but sadly that one's still sitting unread on my shelf.