The Double, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

I read The Double (1846), by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and the kindest thing I can say is: This was not his best.

I am familiar with the literature of twins, doubles, and look-alikes. The Double, by José Saramago. Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk. Sweet Valley Twins and Sweet Valley High, by Francine Pascale. They invite us to reflect on self, identity, and other.

Dostoevsky does not do a bang-up job of this. His book does not invite much reflection at all. I have not surveyed the critical literature to find out how others interpret the book, but my biggest criticism is that the characters are inconsistent. They behave for any reason or no reason.

Our hero (the book calls him that, often, but he's such a schmuck that it comes to feel ironic) is Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, who one day encounters a man who not only looks identical but has the same name. And is assigned to work in the same office as our hero.

This counterfeit Golyadkin starts out as a warm friend to the original Golyadkin, but after a day turns into his bitterest enemy. Why? We don't know. Golyadkin himself never asks why. 

Also peculiar is that almost no one but Golyadkin finds it remarkable that two men with identical appearances and jobs and names occupy the same circles. Perhaps this is meant to be absurd, like Gogol's influential short story "The Nose," published in 1836. But it takes a certain talent to write a successful tale of absurdism, and Dostoevsky had not yet developed that talent.

It pains me to criticize Fyodor Mikhailovich like this. In my estimation, the greatest novel yet written is The Brothers Karamazov, which became a foundational text for me when I read it at age 17. It reshaped how I understood God and it set me on the path of loving Russian literature, and Russian history, and Russian culture in general. It is safe to say that I majored in Russian history because of The Brothers Karamazov.

But that book would not be published for another thirty-odd years. With The Double, Dostoevsky was still learning to be a writer. May this comfort anyone trying to become a better writer. The finest novelist in the history of world literature had some duds, early on.

Now listen: I normally discourage people from finishing books they don't like. Life is short, and there are too many superb books to get through in a lifetime. But I make an exception for Dostoevsky because I know how great he becomes later. I was glad to make this my annual Russian novel, and glad as always to listen to one of of my favorite narrators, Stefan Rudnicki.