Aka The Friend of the Family. And with 265 pages, the longest Dostoyevsky I've read since The Brothers Karamazov, which seems like such a long time ago....
Day 1 (DDRD 2,244) December 23, 2023
Read to page 700.
I was on the first page of the novel when I read this:
"At the time of her second marriage my uncle was only a comet, and yet he, too, was thinking of getting married." (672)
Which was a bit puzzling. So I went online to find that the line should have been
"At the time of her second marriage my uncle was only a cornet, and yet he, too, was thinking of getting married."
So yet another scanning error. I don't understand why these folks can't hire a proofreader to go over the scans before they're published. Obviously they just don't care at all.
Sorry to say that the first 30 (-ish) pages of this one didn't do much for me. Of course it sometimes takes a bit to sink into a book, but I don't think that's ever happened to me with a Dostoyevsky before.
Day 2 (DDRD 2,245) 🌲🌃December 24, 2023🌃🌲
Read to page 732. An unpeasant read today. Felt like I was dragging myself up a rope. I don't know how I'm going to put up with another 200 pages of this, but if I'm your canary in literature's coal mine, you should know that I am nearing death, my little lungs clogged with deadly fumes.
Day 3 (DDRD 2,246) 🎅🤶🌲December 25, 2023🌲🤶🎅
Read to page 766.
On page 742 there's a reference to "gentle reader." Can't remember FD ever doing that before.
"‘Yes,’ I said, ‘a hundred and seventeen serfs.’ And why did I stick on that seventeen? If one must tell a lie, it is better to tell it with a round number, isn’t it?" (739)
"He was sternly forbidden to dream of such coarse rustic subjects." (764)
Day 4 (DDRD 2,247) December 26, 2023
Read to page 800. A little easier reading today. Maybe there's hope for this one after all.
Also, got a new word:
wig
verb
wigged; wigging
transitive verb
: to scold severely
(https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wig)
"The luckless Falaley looked round him in misery and, not knowing what to say, opened and shut his mouth like a carp hauled out of the water on to the sand." (773)
Day 5 (DDRD 2,248) December 27, 2023
Read to page 839. So less than 100 pages to go now... and I've actually started getting into this book. In large part it's due to the sheer and unrelenting reprehensibleness of Foma. I REALLY want to see that motherfucker get his comeuppance.
Speaking of....
VERY intense reading today as the Colonel (Yegor Ilyich Rostanev) first tries (gently, and with money and a new residence offered) to kick the unbearable Foma Fomitch Opiskin. Foma is so brutal, so cruel, and so skillful in his unrelenting attack on the Colonel. And as I read, I found myself standing in my kitchen, facing my very angry second wife. She was angry because I hadn't read her mind --which is something I've found to be true of every woman I've ever known. And she was screaming at me. And then pulled a cork board off the wall and threw it at me. And then shouted, "I used to feel sorry for you and your retarded children." And much to my regret and shame, I did not tell her to get the fuck out of my house. Instead, I begged her to stay. So great was my need for her, my "love" for her, that I let her get away with her abominable behavior. And you know what? She left anyway a few months later on. So all I did was prostrate myself before her bullying, surrender every shred of dignity...for nothing.
And that us why this scene between the Colonel and Foma got to me. I wanted SO MUCH for the Colonel to punch Foma in the mouth, pick him up and throw him out of the house. Because that's all that assholes like that deserve. Not deference, not love. Just a smack in the mouth and a big "Fuck you!"
And if I could turn back time.... Well.
Just sayin', sir.
Oh, P.S. I found an article online (https://philoonbooks.wordpress.com/tag/foma-fomich-opiskin/) about this novel, and here's what A Bibliophile had to say about my ex-wife / Foma:
"It's not clear that Foma is completely self-aware of what a charlatan he is. One gets the impression that he has come to believe a lot of his own bullshit (which only makes him all the more effective). He sees himself as an extraordinary person who is entitled to rule, entitled to have his every whim satisfied."
Yep. In a nutshell.
And as a follow-up, how about this:
"Husbands are only precious to their wives when they are absent...." (823)
Mmm-hmm.
Day 6 (DDRD 2,249) December 28, 2023
Read to page 874.
Tatyana Ivanovna seems very much like Grushenka from The Brothers Karamazov. There's even a sled chase after her as there was in TBK.
Day 7 (DDRD 2,250) December 29, 2023
Read to page 906. So tomorrow will do it.
Funny typo:
“'Mammal Are you conscious? Are you better? Can you listen to me at last?' asked my uncle, stopping before the old lady’s arm-chair." (892)
When they scan text, it can't always read the letters and substitutes something, hence "!" becomes "l," and " Mamma" becomes "Mammal."
Day 8 (DDRD 2,251) December 30, 2023
Read to page 937. Fini.
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages
(16) Toward Jazz 18 days, 224 pages
(17) The Worlds of Jazz 13 days, 279 pages
(18) To Be or Not...to Bop 14 days, 571 pages
(19) Kind of Blue 4 days, 224 pages
(20) Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and his Masterpiece: 5 days, 256 pages
(21) Miles: The Autobiography 16 days, 445 pages
(21) A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album: 8 days, 287 pages
(22) Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest 8 days, 304 pages
(23) Living With Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings 11 days 325 pages
(25) Oliver Twist 16 days, 542 pages
(26) Nicholas Nickleby 27 days, 1,045 pages
(27) The Old Curiosity Shop 22 days, 753 pages
(28) Barnaby Rudge 24 days, 866 pages
(30) Martin Chuzzlewit 32 days, 1,045 pages
(31) American Notes 10 days, 324 pages
(32) Pictures From Italy 7 days, 211 pages
(33) Christmas Stories Volume I 10 days, 456 pages
(34) Christmas Stories Volume II 15 days, 472 pages
(1) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(2) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages
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