Humiliated and Insulted - Fyodor M. Dostoyevsky

It had been long since I picked up a Dostoyevsky. For eight long months I had given my Dostoyevsky fever a rest and picked up other books; other genres. But it was time to return to my quest regarding Dostoyevsky's works. I have gone through most of his works in a rather random fashion. So I randomly picked 'Humiliated and Insulted' to be the next in this crooked line.

This book was Dostoyevsky's attempt at re-establishing himself in the St. Petersburg literary circle after his years of absence due to imprisonment. It was him breaking free from the influences of Gogol and finding a style of his own. This book highlights all that I love about Dostoyevsky's writing. His later works were rather too well done for me. This one was cooked just right. There is a balance in the realism and fever in this book that Dostoyevsky loses in his later works in favour of the latter. It is this balance and the gripping plot that define this novel for me. As usual, the author explores the darker and the dingier recesses of the Russian society to come up with a story that is allegedly auto-biographical in nature. The book, like many others of his, were published it parts. Probably the three short breaks between the four exciting parts were the only time I could put down the book with a certain ease of mind. Otherwise the book was nothing short of an addiction!

The plot features Vanya, a young author, at it's heart as he struggles to help out the woman that he loves, Natasha. She has run away from her family to be with her lover, Alyosha, a young prince who was close to her family once. The family has disowned their daughter for the shame that she put them through. Alyosha's father, Prince Alexey, is a money grubber of the worst kind and wants his puerile son to marry a rich, young heiress - Katya. The plot is further thickened by Nelly, the granddaughter of an old man who used to occupy Vanya's quarters before he died in the opening scenes of the book. The book twists and turns slowing, weaving an intricate web over all the characters and binding them together in one fascinating and thrilling story as Vanya and Natasha fight their way through the humiliation that they face. As the story progresses, Nelly too grows as a character as her past is slowly uncovered by her benefactor, Vanya, who rescues her from the clutches of the evil harlot of a landlady. The story speaks of life in a section of the society that suffers insults with little to retaliate with, but a pride to bear it.

This was eleventh of the sixteen novels listed under Dostoyevsky's name that I have completed. Needless to say what I think of the author, but I will say it none the less. He is a genius at creating characters and scenes which, despite their fantastic nature, reek of a realism that appeals to you. It is a feeling beyond words when you see his plot unravel and reach a fervent peak and gratifies you. Dostoyevsky sucks big time at keep a mystery. But then the beauty of it is that the mysteries rarely account for more than extraneous adornments in his stories. Five more to go. Whatever shall I do when I expire that number!

Asterios Polyp - David Mazzucchelli

I first saw 'Asterios Polyp' in a haze at a friend's friend's place. I took to adjusting the cover mindlessly and put it down without a read. It seemed heavy and I was more interested in Moore's 'Promethea' series on display in the shelves, which too I did not read. Anyhow, this is what I got, or rather chose as a belated birthday gift.

It took me two sittings to swallow the novel; will probably take me a few iterations to digest it. It was quite engrossing. It was truly graphic in the sense that the visuals were equally responsible for portraying the story as were the words used. Mazzucchelli deserves a thumping pat on the back for pulling it off by himself. 'Asterios Polyp' is an experience that he takes us through. It is more than a story; it is more than just art. One is left free to roam in his pages and understand the references that he leaves around. Reading this book was interactive and I think that is the real beauty of it. The plot was a little weak but then those weaknesses were easily overlooked in favour of the exceptional design.

The story is of a successful architect whom we meet on a rather unfortunate day of his. He has turned fifty and his house catches fire as a lightning crashes into his building. The narration takes turns to tell of his life thence and his life until. His past is narrated by his twin brother who died at birth and who dominates his thoughts. From the very beginning the reader is presented with a lot of contradictory aspects of Asterios' nature. Asterios leaves his messy apartment with three tokens of his past and leaves on a greyhound bus to a place as far as the money in his wallet could take him, Apogee. Here he takes up work as a car mechanic and lives with his employer's family. In the background his past life and troubled but happy marriage are slowly brought to light. We see Asterios gradually lose his hubris and reform himself into a much more agreeable person over this "Odyssey" that he undertakes.

I really liked reading 'Asterios Polyp'. I have not diverged much from Moore in the graphic novel world but this one was quite worth it. I will return to the point of movie like experience that Mazzucchelli takes you through. His work is very fluent and has a depth that can be uncovered in parts; specially the references to the Greek tragedies. Mazzucchelli has written another graphic novel but I am thinking that I would go for one of his more hailed works next. 'Batman : Year One' with Frank Miller.