The Brothers Karamazov in Classics Without All the Class

Jan 24, 2009 Ebster Davis rated it it was amazing

I'm about half way though and I'm putting this one on hold because I've been about half way though almost three years.

But the part I've read is amazing!

How amazing?

I'm naming my firstborn son Alyosha! That's how! He's like Mr. Rogers from "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" only younger and better looking.

I'll write a complete review when I finally finish this book. ...more

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May 02, 2012 Nanci Svensson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fave-fiction, spirituality-religion

Ok, so I read this a second time (the Constance Garnett translation) and this time I didn't have to keep a notebook in order to make out three brothers out of what seemed more like 12 bros. much easier to follow the narrative...

So: there is the idiot/dilettante academic Ivan, the idiot/saint Alyosha and idiot/player/drunkard Dimitri (Mitja), sons of the buffoon & semi-sociopath Fyodor Karamazov. The sons mothers' have died early of consumption or brain fever like everybody does in Dostoyevsky's Ok, so I read this a second time (the Constance Garnett translation) and this time I didn't have to keep a notebook in order to make out three brothers out of what seemed more like 12 bros. much easier to follow the narrative...

So: there is the idiot/dilettante academic Ivan, the idiot/saint Alyosha and idiot/player/drunkard Dimitri (Mitja), sons of the buffoon & semi-sociopath Fyodor Karamazov. The sons mothers' have died early of consumption or brain fever like everybody does in Dostoyevsky's work & the brothers have been brought up by relatives & servants, separated from each other as well as from daddy Fyodor. Curiously, the bros feel the need as semi-adults to reconnect with dad which leads to a bitter feud over money and a slut between father & Mitja, to the warming up of daddy Fritzl's heart to the saint like Alyosha, and the cynical mutual contempt between dad & Ivan. About as dysfunctional as it gets, and therefor the seven first parts of the book is fun, feels quite contemporary & gives a rich illustration of both dysfunctional family life in the upper classes and small town life in Russia during the turbulent time following the abolishment of serfdom.

However, the final parts i.e. 8-11, the plot of which I shall not reveal in order not to totally spoil the story, is just an annoying display of irrational decisions and dated codes of conductance for the noblesse, which leaves me irritated and convinced that Dostoyevsky was a grumpy conservative who loved martyrs for the sake of martyrdom itself and I wish someone would publish a version which abruptly ends after Ivan's enthralling recounting of a possible scenario where Christ returns to earth only to be brought in front of The Grand Inquisitor.

I am not sure which character I like least in this menagerie of fools but there is a minor character - Lizaveta - whose compulsion to do what she knows to be morally wrong is one of my FAVORITE characters and her more complex and contradictory traits is a riddle to me. I wish there was a book about her!
Btw. The Grand Inquisitor is available as a story in itself in the public domain. ...more

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