The Brothers Karamazov

A few years back I got into a little Russian Lit phase, reading through a couple classics from Russian authors- Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita and Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. The idea of reading some old-timey novels from Russia was scary initially, but I found that either through well-done translations or just innately readable prose the books weren't nearly as dry or daunting as I had expected. Crime and Punishment came out just seven years after Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, but the former was an intriguing read on attempting to justify horrific crimes while the latter was a decent cure for insomnia. Eventually I attempted Dostoevsky's masterpiece The Brothers Karamazov in the summer of 2008, but only got halfway through and had to put it down for a while. A while turned into four years and now after starting over again, I've finally finished reading the behemoth. It's received high praise from all over, including Back-Blogged mainstays Vonnegut and McCarthy. The book begins with a reunion of the three brothers Karamazov- Dmitri, Ivan, and Alexei, all in their twenties, who have all been raised apart thanks to their uncaring father Fyodor, who sleeps around and generally forgets about his kids and forced others to care for them. Dmitri has returned to Fyodor's small town in Russia to dispute an inheritance claim- he believes papa Fyodor has deceived him out of money and eventually his girlfriend, and the fights between father and son form the main plot of the first half. Ivan and youngest Alexei are a good deal smarter than the rest of their family, but also find themselves arguing over religion- Alexei plays the smug atheist to Alexei's innocent Christian. Don't get me wrong, the religion versus atheism arguments are smart debates, but by the end of the book the three staunch pro-atheism debaters end up finding faith, going nuts, or living without morals until killing themselves. The two characters with strong ties to the church are the two kindest, happiest characters in the book. The message was a little heavy-handed. Anyway while the smart people have their arguments, Dmitri and Fyodor's inheritance dispute keeps escalating until Fyodor is murdered, leading to the more plot-heavy second half of the book, in which Dmitri is arrested and tried for the murder of his father. I ended up flying through the second half in a few nights, as the book shifts suddenly into 'whodunnit' mode and I just wanted to know what happened. After ending with the verdict there's a nice quick epilogue to wrap things up. So what's the verdict? Not Dmitri's verdict, of course, but mine? I liked it but didn't love it. It seemed like Dostoevsky had a lot of his thoughts on religion and philosophy he wanted to get on paper, but when the characters discussed this it felt like it had little to do with the plot at hand. I mean, apparently an early religious debate between Ivan and Alexei is the most famous passage of the entire book, 'The Grand Inquisitor', but I remember that part dragging and wished it had a bit more to do with what was going on in the story. I mean, when your other brother is making death threats to your father, you'd think they'd already have enough to talk about, like 'what the hell is wrong with our family.' But apart from the debates and the plot feeling a bit disconnected, for the most part I enjoyed the story and its memorable cast of characters. I'm already commited to reading another Dostoevsky book, The Idiot, as it was another free Kindle item, so we'll have more of the guy coming at some point.