I'm having trouble figuring out how to explain the amazingness of this book without giving away the whole thing. Well, as you can see, it is a tale of crime and punishment. In examining a man's sick conscience, it seems that the greatest punishment is always self inflected whereas the punishment of the state can, in fact, be a healing experience, a means of cleansing the soul by making reparation for one's sins. The greatest struggle is admitting that one needs forgiveness and then forgiving oneself. This is a fantastic book and I highly recommend it!Some quotes:
- "'That's enough!' he said, solemnly and decisively. 'Begone, mirages, begone, affected terrors, begone, apparitions! . . . There's a life to be lived! I was alive just now, after all, wasn't I? My life didn't die along with the old woman! May she attain the heavenly kingdom - enough, old lady, it's time you retired! Now is the kingdom of reason and light, and . . . freedom and strength . . . and now we shall see!"
- "no, even supposing he knew that he, too, if ever so slightly, was a decent human being . . . well, what was there to be proud of about that? Everyone ought to be a decent human being"
- "That's why they have such distaste for the living process of life: they don't want the living soul! The living soul demands to live, the living soul isn't obedient to the laws of mechanics, the living soul is suspicious, the living soul is reactionary! No, what they prefer are souls which can be made out of rubber, even if they do have a smell of corpse-flesh - but at any rate they're not alive, they have no will of their own, they're servile, won't rebel! . . . Their phalansteries may be ready, but the human nature that would fit them is not yet ready, it wants to live, it hasn't yet completed the vital process, it's not ready for the burial-ground!"
