Notes from underground

(Review by Vaishnavi Prashant Deshpande, Student-MAHARASHTRA STATE INSTITUTE OF HOTEL MANAGEMENT AND CATERING TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH SOCIETY, PUNE)

The notes from underground is a very depressing story of a man who lives alone in underground property away from the society. The book focuses on various stories and aspects of his life that has shaped it to be how it is right now.
The main point or theme of the story focuses on one of the key points of success, that is, failure. Failure to achieve something we really want or failure to act on something we need to act on. Taking this into account the story shares point of view of a guy most society will consider a failure.
The story revolves around the unknown guy writing in his diary after years of failure, tired of society and secluded in a basement. When writing his name, he refuses because he doesn’t believe he is even worth that.
Some of the main issues the book deals with are:
Thinking but not acting: The character rarely works on his thoughts and often refuses to do the work required to reach the goal he sets in his mind.
Refusal to acceptance: he is offered alot of chances to be accepted by the society, he however refuses them out of his own insecurities.
Belittling others: in the book, the underground man often, due to his insecurities, belittled other people and refuses to be open to new conversation. He believes he is best and knows the best.
These are just some of my favorite themes of the story.
Fyodor Dostoevsky has been my favorite writer and this is one of his phenomenon work that can be actually used as a guide on how to ruin your own life, and behavior that leads to such life.
While reading this book, I admit, I was judging the man from underground and his way of living. I was angry at his behavior and mad when he made mistakes that were way within his reach to be rectified. Yet he refused to accept his mistakes and made more of them. It took me a long time to read the book as it made me furious but during the last chapter the man from underground refers to us and says that even though we are judging him, we are not different than him and that made me realize why I hated him, got angry at him and was furious at his actions, because they were mine too. The man from underground is just reflection of the society and mistakes we make. He reflects our thoughts and insecurities, our failure and lack of accountability. This feeling is us hating ourselves and that is why Fyodor Dostoevsky is my favorite author because he is able to encapsulate the feeling so well.
My favorite part of this book is that it depicts the main lead not as hero but as a human that we all can relate to, he is flawed, he is insecure yet feels himself superior at the same time. The one thing that is a little bothering is the book at times can feel lengthy and hard to read due to Words used and long pages worth of paragraphs but in the end those parts are also important and depict parts of him.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone above the age of 18 to 35 because there is so much to learn from the book about growing up and handling the adult life.
The book, being the guide to ruin one’s life, is an excellent guide to success and happiness, a book truly worth the love it has received through the years.
It’s a five star review for me.