The Double and the Gambler (Vintage Classics)

The Double mirrors the previous works of Kafka and the later works of Palahnuick and others in that the hero may or may not be crazy and the reveal will definitely shock you.

I felt such empathy for the main character in The Gambler, I was especially impressed by his declaration of love by means of confirming that he would have committed suicide if that pleased his beloved...

The gambler was good, the double is hard to rate - it was no doubt innovative for it's time, but hasn't aged well

This is for 'The Double.' It contains the one thing I most love about Dostoevsky's writing: the explicit depiction of the pain of an individual struggling against the cruelty of fate in indifferent society. What makes this such an interesting story, however, is the reader is never quite sure from a certain point, what is real, if the second Goliadkin isn't just the projection of his own inner...more

This is for 'The Double.' It contains the one thing I most love about Dostoevsky's writing: the explicit depiction of the pain of an individual struggling against the cruelty of fate in indifferent society. What makes this such an interesting story, however, is the reader is never quite sure from a certain point, what is real, if the second Goliadkin isn't just the projection of his own inner torment being manifested into this illusory and mocking twin -- a twin that somehow seems to succeed in every case where the protaganist fails. The other characters all see this second and interact with him, but the first stormy night when he's about - or is he? - to commit suicide where he perceives the second almost right next to him, but no-one's there, and sees him go by twice through the snow-storm... and that Petrushka never actually addresses the second as a separate person, per se... And you're wondering the whole time if it won't soon be revealed that it's all a dream or that it's the same person. It's aggravating because Dostoevsky won't let you in! That's what makes you want to keep reading! And the continual ebb and flow of the narrator's feelings about how others perceive him never provides an objective picture of how much paranoia, how much is fantasy, and how much is real. And the striking thing is that one expects early on that there will be many instances of people confusing the two characters -- who even dress the same and bear the same name but no one who matters ever does! And that makes it all the more bizarre!   hide