I missed Dostoyevsky. That's probably why the first half of the book didn't sit well with me. When I got used to him again, everything was great, and I loved the second half of the Notes. I love and hate how while reading I literally feel his embarrassment and shame as if they were my own. Simple, unhappy life, told in a great manner. P.S. The first passage is as good as Camus' Stranger's.