A review by unrealpunk
The Adolescent by Fyodor Dostoevsky

4.25

The Adolescent is a good book, but I can definitely understand why this is the most overlooked of Dostoevsky's five great novels.  It doesn't have the momentous events and indelible characters, nor the suspense and pathos of the other four.  There's a definite narrative lull, you might even say stagnation, in the middle of the book, when every scene seems to read the same as the one that came before.  Things start improving when Makar shows up, and in the end everything comes together, but unlike the other novels, nothing truly moved me (although I definitely feel bad for this poor kid Arkady) or brought me to tears.  And I laughed out loud a few times but it never had me screaming.