BOOK REVIEW: NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND

NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND is a psychological fiction novel written by world-famous Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was published in 1864.

It is a deep, detailed manifesto of the human psyche, about those who are mentally suffering in their life. It works as a mirror to humans to show how hollow and disgusted we are inside. We have no peace and nor love, we only have pain, suffering and torturing loneliness.

Fyodor Dostoevsky is known as a great philosopher, novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. His life was miserable, apart from his novels and writings publication and success, his personal life was much disturbed, for a time he had to beg for money. But as time changes everything, later in his life he was the most read and highly regarded Russian novelist.

His writings read within and abroad to Russia. Dostoevsky read books and was inspired by many great writers and philosophers in his life. He also becomes an inspiration for generations after generations. His writings soothe one's soul and also break the false utopian world from the mind.

His most acclaimed and read novels are Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), Demons (1872),  most loved and long novel, Brothers Karamazov (1880), and many more. Dostoevsky's themes are worldwide famous, such as human psychology, love, the political, social turmoil and spiritual awakings of soul and reflection of the environment of Russian society at his time.

There come times when we don't feel anything, fragmented and broken heart, desperate and exhausted soul, unbearable loneliness, hopelessness all eating us and something which bothers us but we can't understand or solve it. Or even sometimes we don't want to come out of it. Then that time Dostoevsky guide us and helps us to see hidden secrets inside ourselves. We seek within. By reading his novels we get a glimpse of dirty, impure mind, soul wandering here and there.

As in the words of Hermann Hesse; "The time to read Dostoevsky is when we are miserable when we have suffered to the limits of our capacity for suffering and feel the entirety of life as a single searing wound when we breathe despair and have died the death of hopelessness."

Therefore his novels are human beings' true reflection of the inside and the outside world. His writings touch the heart in-depth, hurt us then heal us. Make us think, see, and observe who we are, why we are like this? ugly, hatred, unloveable, wasted modern people.

Dostoevsky's soul tormenting and heart-piercing novel, NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND, have deep effects on the psyche of readers. The protagonist of the novel is a nameless, 40 years old, former bureaucrat and well-educated man.

"an intelligent man cannot become anything seriously, and it is only the fool who becomes anything."

The novel is divided into two parts. Each part contains 10 short chapters.

The first part is the title Notes From Underground. The man, who is living underground also called as Underground Man wrote about his sufferings and ongoing thoughts.

"I am a sick man... I am a spiteful man. I am an unpleasant man. l think my liver is diseased."

Those 10 chapters are notes from his diary as his confessions. He confessed about his acts that why he acts like that as he does in the world. He wrote about an ill-mannered society and the faults of politics.

Most importantly his nihilistic views and theories are mind-shaking. Readers get many psychological effects. Because of his emotional boredom and tiredness, he even admits that he must be inactive as being a lazy man than doing anything against others.

"I've never been a coward at heart, although I've always been a coward in action."

He is a mentally fatigued and restless soul. His notes are soul-piercing. While reading those notes, readers feel that it is about them. It gives goosebumps. Living in this modern technological world of the 20th century, we are bounded to our houses because of Covid 19 living a disturbed life, we all are Underground Man one way or other.

The second part of the novel is title A Story of Sleet. Where it is shown how his spiteful behavior takes place in his real life. How useless and disrespectful he is considered because of not much involved in social affairs.

He had many revenge thoughts as he thought that taking revenge is justice. But he couldn't do that because of his spitefulness. He tries to avoid things and the thoughts which torment him, engaged himself with another thing but he couldn't get much success. His sufferings never leave him alone.

"In every man's memory, there are things he won't reveal to others, except, perhaps, to his friends. And there are things he won't reveal even to friends, only, perhaps, to himself, and there, too, in secret. And finally, there are things he is afraid to reveal even to himself, and every decent man has quite an accumulation of them. In fact, the more decent the man, the more of them he has stored up."

He meets Liza, a prostitute in a bar. He slept with her and talked philosophically with her. At first, he showed her how beautiful life will be if she becomes a wife and a mother. Later he gave her his address. But in between those scenes, his speech to her took the novel to another highest level of philosophy, human psychology, and suffering all in one.

Dostoevsky portrays a picture of a mother feeding his child and a father sitting beside them. Three of them make a complete and perfect world. Such things are defining the greatness of novelist in presenting the most adorable scenes of natural beauty. It touches the soft corner of readers.

 However, the underground man reflects a rogue and mentally sick man but his words are full of wisdom and philosophy because of his burden of sufferings. It is shown only through pain and sufferings we can see the truth.

The underground man knows his behavior towards others will only hurt him in the end but still, he doesn't change. He thinks that what others will think about him and receive pain in return.

He is self-obsessed, self-loathing and self-conscious. In simple words, he is representative of the era of the 1860s. The concept and ideologies of that time can be seen through his dialogues.

"In any case, civilization has made mankind if not more blood-thirsty, at least more vilely, more loathsomely bloodthirsty. In old days he saw justice in bloodshed and with his conscience at peace exterminated those he thought proper. Now we do think bloodshed abominable and yet we engage in this abomination, and with more energy than ever. Which is worse? Decide that for yourselves."

It is top ranking as an existentialist novel. One of the points, Notes from Underground novel proves that free will exists. The Underground Man knows his liver is in bad condition. He refused to see a doctor. He can choose what to do, what not to do.

"My liver is bad, well let it get worse."

At last, a heartbreaking scene is when he insulted Liza out of his spontaneous overflow of emotional breakdown, painful thoughts psychologically tearing apart his soul, mind, and heart as he has inside hell. He was insulting himself so to Liza. He asked her to get out of his small room, where she comes to meet him. He realizes his mistakes but he satisfies himself somehow to do that. He ended his story there.

As a reader, I would say each part of the novel is deep psychologically affecting the psyche than I ever read a book. I ended up crying an ocean. "To love is to suffer and there can be no love otherwise."

Dostoevsky poured truth, wisdom, human nature, philosophies into it. One must need a high level of understanding to get the full scope of this book.