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A review by danielkallin04
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
5.0
Hurrah for Karamazov!
Dosto leaving me speechless yet again - which really puts me to shame because he can make a speech last four chapters! I mean, it's a 1000 page book so obviously it is brimming with depth and stories and character, but I was still surprised at how expansive his world was. Most impressively was the short time frame Dosto used, exploring the past in flashbacks, but mainly focusing on the same two months, just with a different perspectives.
I love the way he played with truth, constantly changing my perception of which characters I can trust - can I even trust the narrator? - and arguing compellingly the case for events that contradict the ones previously told to me. And what should I turn to for certainty? Knowledge, religion, or alcoholic vice? For Dosto, all these means seem equal in their destructiveness, and yet all seem to be different means to the same end... some kind of spiritual salvation.
Because The Bros. Karam. is at once a compelling murder mystery, developing into a riveting courtroom drama - and yet that's only really the last 400 pages. Before then is the highly-scrutinised accounts of who the Brothers are, the intense women they surround themselves with, the insightful children of the town, the muzhiks and the aristocrats... and the barin himself!
In the end, I wanted the novel to go on for all eternity, for the death of the book to evoke not so much a putrid smell but leave me in the company of sparrows. Perhaps all I want is for Alyosha to comfort me with certain truths and spiritual naivety... or maybe I should just leave 19th-century Russia all together...
Dosto leaving me speechless yet again - which really puts me to shame because he can make a speech last four chapters! I mean, it's a 1000 page book so obviously it is brimming with depth and stories and character, but I was still surprised at how expansive his world was. Most impressively was the short time frame Dosto used, exploring the past in flashbacks, but mainly focusing on the same two months, just with a different perspectives.
I love the way he played with truth, constantly changing my perception of which characters I can trust - can I even trust the narrator? - and arguing compellingly the case for events that contradict the ones previously told to me. And what should I turn to for certainty? Knowledge, religion, or alcoholic vice? For Dosto, all these means seem equal in their destructiveness, and yet all seem to be different means to the same end... some kind of spiritual salvation.
Because The Bros. Karam. is at once a compelling murder mystery, developing into a riveting courtroom drama - and yet that's only really the last 400 pages. Before then is the highly-scrutinised accounts of who the Brothers are, the intense women they surround themselves with, the insightful children of the town, the muzhiks and the aristocrats... and the barin himself!
In the end, I wanted the novel to go on for all eternity, for the death of the book to evoke not so much a putrid smell but leave me in the company of sparrows. Perhaps all I want is for Alyosha to comfort me with certain truths and spiritual naivety... or maybe I should just leave 19th-century Russia all together...