Confessions of a Literary Critic: How to Understand Books from Dostoevsky to King

This book contains no big literary-theory analyses. And what would be the point after the works of Bakhtin, Lotman, Dunaev, and Nabokov? What you have here is a story about how literature intertwines with the life of an ordinary person, and how in it you can find answers to all important questions—just pick the right moment to read, and notice and hear the hints that writers hid in the pages of their works.

The author of this book—a philologist, journalist, and blogger Nikolay Zharinov—talks about books that accompanied him throughout the most significant and turning-point events in his life. We see how his attitude toward Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” changes with age, why King’s books become best friends of teenagers, and how Bunin managed to turn vulgar stories into true art.

This is a confession—subjective from start to finish, personal, and not claiming to be the ultimate truth. Argue, disagree, criticize—nothing is forbidden. After all, literature can truly be understood only by living it through your own emotions.