I tried to read this book twice last year and I couldn't pass the first page. Two weeks ago I grabbed it when I was organising the shelf. I didn't organise the shelf but I read 30 pages in one sitting. :)
This is the story of a father and his three sons, all neglected by him since they were born. Love-hate relationships, perhaps more (covert) hate than love. Fyodor Karamazov is a selfish, egocentric, stingy jerk and his sons are only the result of his failures. I loved how Dostoevsky goes inside the characters' minds to expose their psychology not only the protagonists but many other secondary characters. From happiness to hysterics, in women and men, Dostoevsky conveyed realistic, emotional and psychological states (sometimes too dramatic to my taste) which fell like rollercoasters.
The novel is long and has long paragraphs. There was a 8 page long paragraph!!! I enjoyed those sections with dialogues and where things were happening. There are many of those. But there are also sections which are hard (if not tedious) to read. Of those I want to highlight 2, both protagonised by Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov. The first is his participation in a conversation at monk Zosima's room. Ivan discusses politics, religion, state and church. The second one is a conversation between Ivan and his brother Alexei, again about religion, morals, ethics. I thoroughly enjoyed Ivan's monologues.
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