I struggled to get through this book, which makes my rating by far the highest rating I’ve given a book that has been both physically and mentally exhausting to complete. This book struggles with pacing in a way that, while feeling somewhat natural to this type of story, shows its age. About 75% through the book I would not have been able to write a review, it felt as though nothing had happened until the last 200 or so pages, and that my interest in the book had completely diminished about 50 pages before then. The last 150 pages or so, however, built upon its (excessively, in my opinion) sturdy foundation in an emotional, intriguing, and beautiful way that I cannot describe or summarize for the life of me. The last 150 pages should be required reading for anyone interested in participating in leftist politics, but the other roughly 350 pages were truly difficult to get through for me. I recommend this book to anyone that loves “the classics” and anyone who finds the story compelling, and beg every reader to not give up halfway through no matter how much it feels like the story’s going nowhere. 

The anarchist character also rules a lot. It’s worth mentioning that.