Notes from the Underground

This mid-career novel (1864) by the Russian master is said to have prefigured the development of existentialist literature in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The book's first-person narrative, delivered here by Simon Vance, tells a story of bitterness, isolation, and alienation from society. The British-born Vance brings an effective mix of insouciance and intensity to the voice of the unnamed main character, whose ruminations and reminiscences about past run-ins--with a soldier, a prostitute, and old schoolmates--spiral into a bleak, cynical indictment of modern society and his own life. Vance is at the top of his game, delivering a treatment that is well matched to the interior churnings of the mind of the protagonist. M.G. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine