Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov"

The Brothers Karamazov The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I was halfway thru reading this book when I met a retired Russian chemist (who was suffering from lung cancer) in one of my gigs, and we discussed about our common interests in reading books. I was surprised to hear from her about Dostoevsky's books being not among her top choices for her reading fare (I saw books everywhere in her house, mostly non English ones), just like others in her personal network. She said, Dostoevsky writes in the ultimate dramatic way (almost histrionic, I thought to myself, and to which I agree to some extent), which is not completely Russian in character (and adds that Pushkin should be read by non Russian readers to get an idea of the best in Russian literature). But she added that Dostoevsky's reads better in the English translations of his books (as remarked by her daughter who's a bilingual, English & Russian writer). The conversation got me more interested in finishing this book, which is the second one that I've read from among the works of Dostoevsky.



The story's pretty much straight forward, and have dealt mainly on "patricide," i.e. the act of killing one's father. I read a translation (reputably the best to date, according to some reviews), and I was gratified to no end even though this book's surely a difficult read. This is one book that's awesome to read especially if you're a writer yourself. You get so many samples of how to describe perspectives of characters, and actually read different styles of looking at perspective about the theme as "murderous" as this one.



I fell in love with the three brothers Mitya, Alyosha, Ivan, also with Zozima (the holy monk but whose body smelled when he died, which believers point to his not being holy as they thought he was when he was still alive), plus Smerdyakov (the actual murderer, who's known by the community as the fourth but illegitimate brother of the 3 mentioned earlier) but who committed suicide before being brought to the hall of justice). Fyodor, the father who got killed, deserved to be murdered, given his contemptuous character, being among the worst examples of a father in literature, and who failed to recognize that he had to play the role of a positive role model to his sons. There was fantastic writing created definitely by Dostoevsky towards the end chapters, most specifically the funeral and the grieving scenes that were very moving. I wondered who the book narrator was, as I may have missed while reading who really he was among the characters. This could be the main defect here, but I may be wrong. Dostoevsky's use of the narrator as a tool in coming up with this novel maybe questionable, but I still like the whole story. I know by now that most great literature, just like this one, has inherent defects themselves, but they still remain great and palpable must-read books as they reflect much of what is true about the human condition (of which we readers are very much aware of in our daily lives).


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