Crime and Punishment

[To BI or not to BI?]

Russian lit is odd because it's the only canon where books can qualify as bing massively great without having any sense of humour at all.

Dostoevsky's all about the characterisation. Sort of Jane Austen with a beard and scabies. The only really impressive thing is how he makes all the characters immediately realistic and engaging whilst giving them a story that's dull and a situation that's wretched. "Notes from Underground" is the textbook example: toss all happens but in a mysteriously engaging way.

Don't let him put you off War and Peace. It's much more of a page-turner. Take one of those glitzy but preposterous American soap operas, add the Battle of Austerlitz and some confused historical essays and you're nearly there.

And, of course, you can always watch the Woody Allen version. Much funnier than the original

[To BI or not to BI?]

Andrey Kurkov and his penguin (the animal, not the publishing company) books are hilarious.

[wendigo100]

Peter And The Wolf was good.

[stackpole]

If that Russian nonsense is supposed to be "intellectual reading", then I'm glad I'm a thicko.

What a load of rubbish.

Back to Viz for me.

You've flushed out the pseudo-intellectuals on here FD!

I'm obviously not clever enough for all that russian bollocks, because its Viz for me too! I'm proud to say that I was there when the dirty thieving gypos story first hit the streets!