Dostoevsky's Last Night

I picked this book up on the way to the airport, and ending up laughing out loud the whole flight (much to the annoyance of my fellow passengers, I'm afraid.) A bleak but terribly funny look at human nature... nature red in tooth and claw, in this instance.

Dostoevsky's Last Night is a daring and unexspected ride through rick and redemption by an author who is obviously not afraid to take risks. In this dazzling novel, Jorge, a passionate and eccentric man addicted to gambling seeks help with Lucia, his shrink. But instead of finding the accepting and caring person he was looking for Lucia attempts to cure him with straitforward no nonsence opinions and caustic advice, which causes Jorge to become more fond of her than he exspected. The plot, however, is not the most interesting part of Dostoevsky's Last Night -- the ideas are. Rossi moves through her novel with incredible grace, showing both the beauty and the tyranny of passion. Borrowing from numerous psychological, literary, and popular influences she constructs a book that burns with all the passion of the gambling table but with much more certainty of comming out a winner.

Although I've not read the translation into English, I wanted to set the record straight and indicate that this novel is not "full of hope." It is, however, a completely engrossing story. One finds oneself being seduced by Jorge and pulled into sharing his vision of gambling, the world, and himself, which is an indication of Peri Rossi's virtuosity as a writer, as this pessimistic, superior and world-weary vision is apparently not her own.

A sexy, intelligent book about a man who defines himself by his addictions (in his case it is too gambling). An idea novel, plus just a moving story full of hope.