Despite any arguments to the contrary, the novel felt really unfinished. I mean, the narrator tells the reader in the last chapter that we’re going to see what else happens to our hero and then doesn’t follow through. Besides the ending that isn’t really an ending, it was actually an engaging narrative. I could have done with less of the making vast generalizations about the nature of the Russian people but wonderfully drawn individual characters make up for that. It’s flaws were easily excusable and it definitely made me laugh in some parts. And it’s great how, despite the foreignness of it all, so much of 21st century upper middle-class America is so readily recognizable in a 19th century Russian satire.