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jhast2 's review for:
The Brothers Karamazov
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Brothers Karamazov is less a challenge than a journey into the human experience. Every detail, every interaction is an opportunity to observe, a lesson in what motivates and compels people. The portraits of the brothers are incredibly rich, such that it feels that these are people I know.
I loved the idea of Dostoevsky's narrator as partially unreliable...to read the descriptions and narrative as through the eyes of a specific person, with whom we may share some perspectives and disgree on others.
To come across the chapters "Rebellion" and "The Grand Inquisitor" set in the context of the novel is nothing short of breathtaking. Twin jewels in a crown of literature.
How to end such a novel? I did not think to consider it, simply reading to the end, with full trust in the author. And it was there at the end that I wept, as I read the final pages, as I sat for some time reflecting on the goodness of Alyosha and the potential in the spirit of humankind.
I loved the idea of Dostoevsky's narrator as partially unreliable...to read the descriptions and narrative as through the eyes of a specific person, with whom we may share some perspectives and disgree on others.
To come across the chapters "Rebellion" and "The Grand Inquisitor" set in the context of the novel is nothing short of breathtaking. Twin jewels in a crown of literature.
How to end such a novel? I did not think to consider it, simply reading to the end, with full trust in the author. And it was there at the end that I wept, as I read the final pages, as I sat for some time reflecting on the goodness of Alyosha and the potential in the spirit of humankind.