10. Rating and Review

[John]

10. Please share your rating and your review of The Brothers Karamazov. Does it belong on the list?

[Diane]

Rating: 5 Stars
Read: 2015

This is a story about a father and his three sons (from two different mothers). Theirs is a dysfunctional family. The father is an unlikeable drunk and womanizer who cares nothing for his sons. The son's mothers both die young, and the sons are raised apart by other relatives. The sons return to see their father as young adults at the same time for various reasons. There is also a possible fourth illegitimate son whose mother also died. There are love triangles, a murder, and a trial. There are themes relating to religion, morality, and other ethical issues.

The only thing I really didn't care for were the Russian names. Russian surnames are complicated and confusing to me, plus some of the characters had several nicknames.

Overall an amazing book. Dostoyevsky is one of my all-time favorite authors and this is one of his best works. Definitely worthy of its place on the list.

[Kristel]

Story of faith and doubt. It also is a story of Russia and the Russian pheasant. There is a lot of contrasts in the book. Ivan and Alyosha are opposites. One a man of faith and the other a man of doubts. Dimitri the first born son is a wild, reactive man who is loud in his abusive threats but really in the middle between his two brothers. It is a story of Russia, a story of a dysfunctional family and a story of faith and doubt.
I rate it 5 stars because it is very good. I liked Crime and Punishment a bit more but the author considers this his best book. It deserves a reread someday.

[[deleted user]]

I can only give this 3 stars as I found it so dull and boring.

The sections with Aloysha were overly preachy while the other sections were too drawn out for me, I really struggled to finish this.

[Pip]

I listened to an Audible version read by Constantine Gregory. There were several Audible versions and I really liked the sound of his voice when I sampled them.He was excellent at providing different voices for the characters so I wasn't as confused as I often am with Russian characters. I could not find out, however, which translation he was using. I did find much of the conversations believable and fresh and the minor characters very believable. The discussions about the large themes of the book were interesting, but it was when the trial was underway and the lawyers made their arguments that this book turned into a five star read for me. I found that part utterly gripping and I finally finished the reading feeling utterly exhausted. In contemplating the work as a whole, while answering the questions, I realise why so many people have rated it as one of the great books of all time. The uplifting cameo of Alyosha with the boys at Ilyusha's stone was a fitting end to a book that examines so many of life's great questions. I DID want to know, however, did Dmitri escape to America? and was it as bad as he feared?