New Book, New Crime, Same Punishment

Surprisingly for the first 30 pages of the book, I feel the mood of the story is kind of binding, and has a connection of family commitments for each other. The author introduces the story with a student in debt of his rent and a drunken man who can't seem to get over is ridiculous drinking habits. The author's perspective was to show two different worlds: one as a young man who is a student and another as a man who has a family and constantly loses his job by drinking alcohol. He characterizes these characters to show how indifferent they are to the world. One shows commitment and the other shows dishonesty and unaccountability. But how does crime and punishment really ties into this two worlds? Basically who will be the one that falls into insanity and commits a crime. It will be interesting as I read further more into this story, but so far, the author gives clues and hints on who will be punished.