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aloysiusventham's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
This book contains some of the most insightful passages on Dostoevsky I've read, but boy are they obscured by the somewhat meandering prose. This book desperately needs a tighter structure so the points and themes could be better executed. At the moment, it reads like a mega smart author rambling on about the interesting themes in his favourite books.
davehershey's review against another edition
4.0
I am a huge fan of Dostoyevsky and I have appreciated the work of Rowan Williams in the past, so when i discovered this book, reading it was a no-brainer. But the other reviews I read here on Goodreads were correct - this is a difficult book. I was hoping for some insights on Dostoyevsky's work, which I got, but the book is really graduate-level literary criticism. Reading this demands a recollection of plot details from Dostoyevsky's four major works, so if you have not read them recently you may be hard-pressed to remember the scenes he is discussing. Honestly, early on I thought about giving up. But if you stick with it, even if you do not recall all the plot points Williams discusses, you do get some great insight into Dostoyevsky. I found most thought-provoking how Williams shows that Dostoyevsky does not tie off everything in great detail but instead leaves things open, demanding the reader to think. This is in contrast with the diabolical in his stories which seeks to control and bring an end to freedom. While the diabolical would shut down all conversation, the narrative drives us to keep it going, to give space to the other in their freedom and have continuing dialogue.
So should you read it? If you are a fan of Dostoyevsky and have read his four major works, then sure, give it a shot. I gave it four stars because on merit it is worth four, maybe five stars. But I do wish there was a more accessible book for casual readers who want to see these themes in Dostoyevsky without reading a graduate level work of literary criticism. I assume there are such books, so i can't fault Williams for not writing one, I just am not familiar with them.
So should you read it? If you are a fan of Dostoyevsky and have read his four major works, then sure, give it a shot. I gave it four stars because on merit it is worth four, maybe five stars. But I do wish there was a more accessible book for casual readers who want to see these themes in Dostoyevsky without reading a graduate level work of literary criticism. I assume there are such books, so i can't fault Williams for not writing one, I just am not familiar with them.
frazzle's review
5.0
Incredible book. I've read most of the books RW discusses and still I found it difficult to keep up with his brilliant writing. Essential ancillary reading for Dostoevsky.
burdell's review
5.0
"[Dostoevsky] wants us to choose that humanity will survive - not merely as a biological but a cultural reality. And the culture he identifies as human is one in which we do not have to lie about what we are in relationship to our environment; a culture that insists upon a recognition of mortality and fallibility, of limit, of mutual indebtedness for our nurture and psychological growth, of the inaccessibility of our souls to one another and of the gratuitous and creative nature of what we say to one another. His fictions tell us, with intensifying urgency, that this culture is more at risk than we might have thought, that the restless concerns of secular and instrumentalist thinking are fast eroding it, so that we may wake up and discover we no longer know how to respond with either respect or compassion to each other, and so have literally nothing to say"
This is a dense book and a parts of it went way over my head, but really does a fantastic job of getting to the core of why Dostoevsky's ideas will always be relevant.
This is a dense book and a parts of it went way over my head, but really does a fantastic job of getting to the core of why Dostoevsky's ideas will always be relevant.
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