@tishkova@bookstodon That does seem like the author is trying to do too much. Maybe it would have worked more effectively, if it had been a graphic novel?
As an aside (possibly on topic?) one of the most helpful and humorous books I've ever read about the (Western) classics is THE WESTERN LIT SURVIVAL KIT: AN IRREVERENT GUIDE TO THE CLASSICS, FROM HOMER TO FAULKNER, by Sandra Newman (who by odd coincidence, can read Russian classics in the original language).