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4.31 AVERAGE
4.31 AVERAGE
What a behemoth! This book really has it all. A hundred characters and just as many side plots, so intricately and expertly woven together. The sheer scale of the novel is awe-inspiring.
I really enjoyed the philosophical and psychological elements of Crime and Punishment (the only other Dostoevsky novel I’ve read), and TBK certainly doesn’t lack in that department. As I was reading, however, I found that I just don’t find Dostoevsky’s theological arguments/Christian worldview particularly compelling. I disagree with the overall premise that morality and a “good life” require faith in god.
That said, I was really impressed by the vast number of biblical allusions throughout the novel, and I loved that my version of the book had extensive footnotes contextualizing the religious, cultural, and historical references. I don’t think you need to be a theist to enjoy the novel—I don’t regret reading this at all—but I’m sure it definitely makes it a more meaningful read.
I really enjoyed the philosophical and psychological elements of Crime and Punishment (the only other Dostoevsky novel I’ve read), and TBK certainly doesn’t lack in that department. As I was reading, however, I found that I just don’t find Dostoevsky’s theological arguments/Christian worldview particularly compelling. I disagree with the overall premise that morality and a “good life” require faith in god.
That said, I was really impressed by the vast number of biblical allusions throughout the novel, and I loved that my version of the book had extensive footnotes contextualizing the religious, cultural, and historical references. I don’t think you need to be a theist to enjoy the novel—I don’t regret reading this at all—but I’m sure it definitely makes it a more meaningful read.
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
relaxing
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
کتاب یک تموم شد ولی دیگه متوجه شدم واقعن آدم کلاسیک طولانی خوندن نیستم دیگه.
آنقدر بینش فاصله میوفته لذتش برام از بین می‌ره.
قبلن ها یه تک می‌تونستم یه کتاب بزرگ رو بخونم
واقعن یکی دو ساله نمیشه.
هرچی تلاش کردم بر نگشتم به چیزی که بودم.
فکر کنم فعلن سراغ کلاسیک های طولانی نرم.
آنقدر بینش فاصله میوفته لذتش برام از بین می‌ره.
قبلن ها یه تک می‌تونستم یه کتاب بزرگ رو بخونم
واقعن یکی دو ساله نمیشه.
هرچی تلاش کردم بر نگشتم به چیزی که بودم.
فکر کنم فعلن سراغ کلاسیک های طولانی نرم.
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
so i just got spiritually mugged by 19th-century russia in the middle of a theology class hosted by men who are either drunk, possessed, crying, or quoting the bible and aristotle in the same breath, and honestly i came here to follow a murder trial but instead i’m elbows-deep in five philosophical crises, two love triangles, and at least seven subplots about people whose names i have to keep googling because dostoevsky insisted on giving them all three.
and what is it with the endless monologues, the sudden backstories about people who appear once and then vanish forever, like yes i do care about the metaphysical dilemmas of the man who once fetched water for someone’s aunt in 1834 apparently, and don’t get me started on the tangents, just when i think we’re finally getting to the part where someone confesses or runs off to siberia we’re sidetracked by a parable about christ in spain or the rotting corpse of a saint or six schoolboys crying over a dying dog and somehow i’m crying too.
and while everyone’s busy screaming about god or running around with torn shirts and unprocessed childhood trauma, there’s this relentless friction between faith and reason that underpins everything, like these people aren’t just reacting to grief, they’re debating the existence of a just universe while actively imploding from the inside out.
and every character carries this unbearable mix of innocence and guilt, as if no one is ever purely good or purely evil, just endlessly collapsing under the weight of choices they did or didn’t make, and don’t even get me started on jealousy and envy, on how everyone in this family wants something someone else has—love, money, forgiveness, or even just a clean conscience—and dostoevsky holds it all up like a broken mirror to modernization, to the emerging rational world that wants to outgrow god but still trembles in the dark when it comes to morality.
and in the middle of that chaos, suffering becomes almost sacred, like each character is either punishing themselves or being punished by the cosmos or trying to atone for sins they inherited, which brings us back to family, this beautiful and terrible thing that binds the brothers together even as they try to kill, save, and out-love each other.
and yet, in the middle of all that emotional and theological whiplash, there’s that one scene that broke me in the most necessary way when ivan and alyosha sit and argue about suffering and justice and ivan says he’d rather return his ticket to heaven if it means accepting a world where even one innocent child suffers and alyosha listens, really listens, just sits in that pain and lets it be real. and in that moment, everything stopped, and i thought this is it, this is the heart of the novel, that unbearable contradiction between logic and love, between belief and despair, and honestly it could’ve ended there, i didn’t need the crime anymore, i didn’t need the courtroom or the dramatic confessions or the long dragging weight of who was guilty and who was mad, because that sacred collision between brothers was the only truth that mattered to me, and everything else just echoed from it.
and even though the book sidetracked constantly, even though it stretched itself thin with every possible sorrow and story, i understand now that all the digressions, the tears, the sermons, the chaos was one massive, spiraling attempt to make sense of the world, to wrestle meaning from a universe full of contradiction, and good thing i was in the proper headspace for it, willing to be patient with its noise, or i might have missed the miracle buried under all those maddening, magnificent pages.
and oh this fucking theological chaos and emotional hemorrhage was supposed to have a sequel? As if dostoevsky hadn’t already wrung every ounce of existential agony from his readers. god, this literary behemoth!
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes