‘You’: All the Hidden Literary and Book References, Explained

Joe takes the Fyodor Dostoyevsky book out of his bag during his job interview with the Anavrin employee Calvin (Adwin Brown).

“I just feel like it gets more relevant every day, right?” Joe tells him. ” … This guy’s struggling,  trying to get past his mistakes, you know. I don’t like to get political but I will say our world is done for if we don’t think about that, how to be better.”

“I can’t believe you just did that, made a Russian novel sound like something I’d want to read,” Calvin tells him.

We later learn that Joe brought the book to secure his job at Anavrin when we see a flashback of Forty angrily lecturing Calvin for ordering a bunch of copies of “Crime and Punishment.” 

“What? There’s a human alive who wants to read ‘Crime and Punishment?'” Forty tells Calvin.

That said, the book could also be a nod to Joe’s present state. The novel’s narrator struggles to overcome his past mistakes.