It's precisely those who are near to us that are impossible to love; you can only love the distant.
Book Title: The Brothers Karamazov
Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
Genre: Fiction/Historical
# of pages: 974
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best].: A-
Short description/summary of the book: When brutal landowner Fyodor Karamazov is murdered, the lives of his sons are changed irrevocably: Dimitry, the sensualist, whose bitter rivalry with his father immediately places him under suspicion for parricide; Ivan, the intellectual, whose mental tortures drive him to breakdown; the spiritual Alyosha, who tries to heal the family's rifts; and the shadowy figure of their bastard half-brother Smerdyakov. As the ensuing investigation and trial reveal the true identity of the murderer, Dostoyevsky's dark masterpiece evokes a world where the lines between innocence and corruption, good and evil, blur and everyone's faith in humanity is tested to the extreme.
My thoughts: Awesome book! (though seriously, seriously overly long. We actually get the entire closing statements in the trial and they take up a hundred pages on their own!). I loved Alyosha (who is probably the most adorable fictional character ever written), and had a weird soft spot for Ivan: though of the three, Dimitry is by far the least involving, which is a shame, because the whole book is about him really. Occasionally it does get bogged down in its own ideas (there is a good reason why this was Freud's favourite book, yikes), and straight after the murder we have another needless hundred pages about supporting characters who mean nothing, spoils the tension somewhat! The reveal is great too. Seriously, read it, it's fabulous.
The Gormenghast Trilogy is actually next in my pile, but I think all that Gothic Melodrama after all this Russian Melodrama might be a little too much; so I'm dvelling into my emergency pile'o'chick-lit :D
Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
Genre: Fiction/Historical
# of pages: 974
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best].: A-
Short description/summary of the book: When brutal landowner Fyodor Karamazov is murdered, the lives of his sons are changed irrevocably: Dimitry, the sensualist, whose bitter rivalry with his father immediately places him under suspicion for parricide; Ivan, the intellectual, whose mental tortures drive him to breakdown; the spiritual Alyosha, who tries to heal the family's rifts; and the shadowy figure of their bastard half-brother Smerdyakov. As the ensuing investigation and trial reveal the true identity of the murderer, Dostoyevsky's dark masterpiece evokes a world where the lines between innocence and corruption, good and evil, blur and everyone's faith in humanity is tested to the extreme.
My thoughts: Awesome book! (though seriously, seriously overly long. We actually get the entire closing statements in the trial and they take up a hundred pages on their own!). I loved Alyosha (who is probably the most adorable fictional character ever written), and had a weird soft spot for Ivan: though of the three, Dimitry is by far the least involving, which is a shame, because the whole book is about him really. Occasionally it does get bogged down in its own ideas (there is a good reason why this was Freud's favourite book, yikes), and straight after the murder we have another needless hundred pages about supporting characters who mean nothing, spoils the tension somewhat! The reveal is great too. Seriously, read it, it's fabulous.
The Gormenghast Trilogy is actually next in my pile, but I think all that Gothic Melodrama after all this Russian Melodrama might be a little too much; so I'm dvelling into my emergency pile'o'chick-lit :D