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A review by casparb
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
5.0
Okay it's the summer of bangers and This is by far the best Dostoevsky I've read. Where to start with this spicy doorstop? Ecclesiastes - 'Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.' Let's begin there.
Dusty kind of breaks everything towards the end. I'm not going to plonk spoilers here. But the final primary chapters (about 100 pages worth) form a beautiful disquisition upon the relationship between reader/novel/subject. The novel in general has a lot of interest to the psychoanalysts out there, but this section in particular gestures toward a new theory of the mutually psychoanalytic reader-text relationship.
For such a novel of morality, he never comes across as particularly moralising either. Yes, there are moments of pathos, but they felt deserved to me when they arrived. I can't think of a novel with such a deeply nuanced understanding of Christianity. Dusty really outdoes himself there and I love it.
There's a cheeky jab at Tolstoy at one point, which did amuse. It doesn't come across as catty or jealous, and I think the heft of the accusation is negated by the fact that the literal devil delivers it. The 'devil' chapter was a particular highlight for me - it merits reading and rereading. I would love to compare the presentation of this scene among screen adaptations. I had imagined Him appearing as the muzhik from Kramskoi's painting. Perhaps that's too Twin Peaks of me.
I could go on.
I'll be thinking it over for a long while. Saw someone complaining that they found the characters 'unlikeable' and that threw me. Goes without saying that approaching literature as a hunt for 'likeability' is immature at best. A particular achievement of this novel is that just about every character is sympathetic, even if they aren't entirely likeable. Rakitin a possible exception. But every brother is a beautifully troubled character. In a sense the novel refutes the notion of a 'radical break', in the Rilkean sense. Change is confounded, again and again.
So it's a real piece of genius, though of course, you didn't need me to tell you that. I can promise it won't be a waste of time, even if it is chunky as anything. No end to speculation here.
Dusty kind of breaks everything towards the end. I'm not going to plonk spoilers here. But the final primary chapters (about 100 pages worth) form a beautiful disquisition upon the relationship between reader/novel/subject. The novel in general has a lot of interest to the psychoanalysts out there, but this section in particular gestures toward a new theory of the mutually psychoanalytic reader-text relationship.
For such a novel of morality, he never comes across as particularly moralising either. Yes, there are moments of pathos, but they felt deserved to me when they arrived. I can't think of a novel with such a deeply nuanced understanding of Christianity. Dusty really outdoes himself there and I love it.
There's a cheeky jab at Tolstoy at one point, which did amuse. It doesn't come across as catty or jealous, and I think the heft of the accusation is negated by the fact that the literal devil delivers it. The 'devil' chapter was a particular highlight for me - it merits reading and rereading. I would love to compare the presentation of this scene among screen adaptations. I had imagined Him appearing as the muzhik from Kramskoi's painting. Perhaps that's too Twin Peaks of me.
I could go on.
I'll be thinking it over for a long while. Saw someone complaining that they found the characters 'unlikeable' and that threw me. Goes without saying that approaching literature as a hunt for 'likeability' is immature at best. A particular achievement of this novel is that just about every character is sympathetic, even if they aren't entirely likeable. Rakitin a possible exception. But every brother is a beautifully troubled character. In a sense the novel refutes the notion of a 'radical break', in the Rilkean sense. Change is confounded, again and again.
So it's a real piece of genius, though of course, you didn't need me to tell you that. I can promise it won't be a waste of time, even if it is chunky as anything. No end to speculation here.