The combination of a Dostoevsky short story and a Hernandez short story can only be justified by the fact that the cover design is fabulous, and that why not throw in a short story by a lesser known (comparatively) writer with an uncharacteristic work of a better known writer? So, this volume is ridiculous, and made more so by the terrible binding and rampant typos (the word "full" is rendered, presumably by character-recognition software, as "trill", and "frill", within three paragraphs).

But I've read some disappointing stuff lately, and these stories were anything but. Dostoevsky is known for being Deep And Profound, and therefore mistakenly not thought of as a satirist, because for whatever reason anglophones believe that you can only be Deep And Profound while being Existentialist About The Lack Of Meaning Of Life, which is hard to do when you're laughing. But the big D's major books, particularly Demons, are deeply satirical, so it's no surprise that he does a good job with this story about a liberal/progressive/positivist getting swallowed by what may or may not be a crocodile (I suspect it's actually a fake, because that makes the story even funnier). The high point is the wonderful rants by our modern-day Jonah, who plans to use his new found expertize to rise to the heights of the bureaucracy, while admitting that the economic imperative requires that he *not* be removed from the crocodile's belly.

Hernandez's story does not actually feature a crocodile, and has nothing to do with any of this, though it is similarly cutting re consumerism and the bien pensants of the bourgeoisie. Because the narrator is less distanced than in Dostoevsky's 'Crocodile,' Hernandez's story is actually closer to the feeling of Dostoevsky's novels, where the satire and hatred is crushingly sad.

So, this poorly constructed volume did its job: I read Dostoevsky's story, and enjoyed it; I read Hernandez's story, and decided to read more of him. ( )