Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
I picked up a novel filled with Dostoevsky's short stories and many I enjoyed. I am not a great novelist or literary critic so my opinion should not mean much to you. I thought Notes of the Underground was very good, but I enjoyed some of the other stories much better like White Nights for instance. Notes of the Underground is about a depressed man who isolates himself and leads a very poor miserable life. He eventually meets a whore and rants and raves to her about her future. I found the beginning to be complicated and he even admits that it is full of rambling and contradictions, but I believe if one is intelligent enough one can understand this, but I am not so I was lost. Once he dove into the story about the poor man I began to understand it much better. I believe he portrayed the underground very well. The whole thing is a memoir from this poor isolated soul. Its great. I loved it. I enjoy his writing style and I have very much respect for Mr. Dostoevsky.