>You should meet more people <g>. Taste is individual, of course, but to me he is the best writer ever apart from Shakespeare. Dostoyevsky had a mad Russian soul and a vivid writing style that comes through even in translation.
>
>Hmmm, interesting. You are Russian by birth, aren't you? Is this a case of a prophet being without honor in his own country? Or is it his nationalism you don't like?

Sorry for jumping in.

I don't think this is the case here.

On the other hand, "Crime and Punishment" was a mandatory reading in the 9th grade in Russian schools and usually you can not love what you have to read <g>

But it may go deeper than that. For me some of his works show too much of mental illness and I don't want to be dragged into that...