I loved reading this book. It is not only about Dostoevsky, but is also written in Dostoevsky's style. It's dark and fast. It's about death, punishment and inner battle.



The character Dostoevsky has some of the attributes of his own characters Svidrigailov, Stavroghin, Raskolnikov, with the distinction of a man fighting with his age and not having his nobility and superiority of the "master" as we expected. He looses his strength and ability to see things clearly and the only way to show his virility is the erotic one.



The most strange character is by far Matryosha, Anna's daughter, a mixture between vulnerability and maturity. She is caught in the game of jealousy and revenge. And it seems she had a bizarre relationship with Pavel.



The relationship father-son is very strange and strong described. The father ends up in the same situation of his stepson. He is also a weak man which is manipulated by the same Sergey Nechayev, without even knowing. Also, between Feodor and Pavel appears this writing rivalry. The dead son leaves behind some manuscripts which are rated as compromising by the police, this also happened in real life with Dostoevsky. (although you can not compare the quality)



I appreciate Coetzee's research and it made me believe that this story really happened in Dostoevsky's life.



It's my first Coetzee novel, can't hardly wait to read more of his work.

Окей, сначала мне ужасно не нравилось из-за перевода, я переключилась на оригинал... Стало лучше, но только в масштабах "просто не нравится" вместо "ужасно не нравится".
Не смогла я проникнуться этой историей вообще никак.

WARNING: SALIENT PLOT DETAILS DISCUSSED

This is the second novel I read in a relatively short space of time wherein an author fictionalizes the life of an aknowledged master of the literary trade. In Colm Tóibín's The Master I had difficulties connecting with the character of Henry James. The character didn't seem to be the driving force behind the plot at all. It felt more like he was being led by the author through certain events in the biography of Henry James. In TMoP this is certainly not the case. Here the character is present from the first page and we are rushed headlong into an engaging narrative written in the present tense wherein Dostoyevsky comes to St. Petersburg to visit the grave of his stepson who fell to his death in a mysterious way. In his attempts to make contact, and peace, with the ghost of his stepson we enter the world of a conflicted, selfish, difficult, sometime insincere, spiteful, and insecure character, but who also, through circumstance and his possession of warmth and insight, awakens our sympathy.



It is an amazing coincidence that I found this book in a second-hand bookshop so shortly after finishing reading Dostoyevsky's Demons (a.k.a.The Posessed) because this book is a fictionalized account of what inspired FMD to write Demons (where Nechaev became Verkhovensky). In particular it deals with how FMD sold his soul to write the single most horrible and sick scene I have yet encountered in literature (Stavrogin's confession). Of course the book is not as straightforward as all that, but I'm certain that that particular scene and at what cost, to the writer's conscience (or soul), it was written must have been what set the wheels of Coetzee's imagination in motion. The final chapter, where FMD gives in to his "demon" and starts writing the scene was unbelievably powerful and as it ended I felt both exhilaration and a certain emptiness. A state which only the best of books can bring me too.



UPDATE:

Whilst reading the book I was not aware of the following: "Hanging over the novel is a scene from Coetzee's own life: the death of his son at 23 in a mysterious falling accident."

If you're like me and find Dostoevsky and pre-Revolution Russia fascinating...it's still a hard sell, this one.

I think I would have enjoyed this more if it were about a fictional person.

This is the story of Dostoevsky who tries to understand the subtle death of Pavel, his step-son. Another magnificent book written by one the masters of the contemporary fiction.