Deep consolations to your fate :) It must have been real torture. Putting it on school program is worse than putting Dostoevsky there. While i was able to read Dostoevsky again later at University, and that time i was enjoying it and started to understand him (at least it was my impression that i was understanding him), i was able to start reading Platonov only when i was doing heavy physical labor 12-14 hours/day 7 days a week while working in summer construction in Siberia ("stroyotryad") - that puts you into the state of mind suitable for Platonov :)