The Brothers Karamazov

Fyodor Dostoevsky · ★★★★★

Not a huge surprise that I think this a brilliant novel. I'm honestly glad I read it in middle age, however. I think I could tolerate and actually prefer Dostoyevsky's penchant for rambling and giving himself long wind-ups towards whatever point he wanted to make (and there sure are a lot of points being made here). Things that impressed me the most: the power of a well loved character. Dostoyevsky treats his wide cast of characters with generosity and love. As a result, they feel more lived in, more complicated, and above all more relatable. His thematic discursions are more compelling as a result. The fact that Dostoyevsky treats the novel like a way of thinking. In parallel with his section titled The Grand Inquisitor, the main story these protagonists go through reveal the truth of clarity over logic and how that filters through many societal lenses (law, faith, family love, etc). That it doesn't take beautiful prose to make a beautiful novel. The power of Dostoyevsky's humanist worldview and the focus of his gaze as a writer make all the prose mere conduit for his ideas and nothing to really pay attention to in and of itself. I don't know what it is like to read this in Russian but given the regard folks have for this particular translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky I imagine the Russian is very similar. He portrays convincing portraits of people in set pieces infused with a sort of dramaturgy. Great novel. Highly entertaining to read. It gives plenty to ponder over while keeping a steady narrative pace.