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A review by lit_terary
Romanzi II: Anna Karenina - La felicità familiare - La sonata a Kreutzer by Franco Cordelli, Leo Tolstoy
4.0
I will be honest here, I felt like Tolstoj (or Tolstoy) was going through an existential crisis and that the book was the result of his trying to make sense of it.
The story is very short but quite jam-packed with social commentary, ideology and reflections on love, marriage and sex. In its brevity, it's quite a rollercoaster: some parts are well-reasoned, sensible and generally coherent, while others are more of delirious ramblings - which, I take it, is a symptom of the character's psyche spiralling to a point of no return. I thought it was brilliant the way Tolstoj tried to comment on society while analyzing an atypical character and the story of his marriage.
The work, per se, is thought-provoking and compelling and offers pretty unconventional views on the topic at hand. In terms of ideology, though, I don't know where I stand and I'm not even sure Tolstoj himself knew where to stand. I've seen readers criticize this book for being catholic, sexist propaganda but I didn't necessarily read it like that.
The story is very short but quite jam-packed with social commentary, ideology and reflections on love, marriage and sex. In its brevity, it's quite a rollercoaster: some parts are well-reasoned, sensible and generally coherent, while others are more of delirious ramblings - which, I take it, is a symptom of the character's psyche spiralling to a point of no return. I thought it was brilliant the way Tolstoj tried to comment on society while analyzing an atypical character and the story of his marriage.
The work, per se, is thought-provoking and compelling and offers pretty unconventional views on the topic at hand. In terms of ideology, though, I don't know where I stand and I'm not even sure Tolstoj himself knew where to stand. I've seen readers criticize this book for being catholic, sexist propaganda but I didn't necessarily read it like that.