here it is. the end of june. have you finished the brothers karamazov? neither have i. but i’m still there. i’m still reading. and gosh darn it, i’m going to finish if it kills me. (which it just might.) here’s our guest host’s review: don’t worry, no spoilers or loosening of important plot points follows. feel free to read and comment no matter how far you got into the heavy thing.

 

I figured we should start our discussion with the introduction because many people may have read this far before the enormity of the task overcame their best intentions to read the entire book. If that is not the case, at least you know where to look for the introduction in the book.

 

I love the introduction to this book because of the many different roles it plays in the story. On the one hand, it gives us a taste of the voice of the narrator unencumbered by the plot and characters. This is particularly valuable in this novel because Dostoevsky often highlights the narrator’s voice in the foreground of his novel. Is the narrator a participant in the story? How does the narrator’s extreme proximity to the events of the story shape the narrative that s/he relates? Is s/he trustworthy? Is s/he one of the named characters in the story? I don’t have good answers to any of these questions, but they make the novel fun to read and reread.

 

On the other hand, the introduction draws particular attention to Alexey Fyodorovich Karamazov (Alyosha) as the ‘hero’ of the novel. If we take this comment at face value, the novel becomes a standard bildungsroman with Alyosha as the central character who passes through moments of spiritual crisis on his way to greater understanding.

 

What sets Brothers apart in my mind is the masterful way in which Dostoevsky engages the big questions from a variety of viewpoints. Dostoevsky’s writing is often noted for its polyphonic nature (a multiplicity of independent voices within a single work), but many times when you pin somebody down and try to get them to tell you exactly what that means, the waffling begins. As I read Brothers this time, I was struck by the variety of themes and voices in the novel. I really felt the richness of his characters as they struggled with the fundamental issues treated in the book (guilt, responsibility, suffering of innocents, family, loyalty, greed, buffoonery, faith). Dostoevsky allows each of his characters to experience and express these themes and allows each to move from the background to the foreground in the words and actions of each of his characters. The best comparison I hav eheard likens Dostoevsky’s style to a symphony―themes emerge in one voice, and are later picked up and developed by another voice in the orchestra. When we encounter the same theme in a different voices, we take something new away from the experience. So it is with reading Dostoevsky.

 

The themes of suffering and responsibility/guilt stood out to me in my reading this time. (Perhaps this is because of the circumstances in which I read the book.) These themes are inextricably linked by the the contradictory phrases that Dostoevsky associates with them in the book . . . On the one hand, “All are guilty (often translated as responsible) for all and for everything.” (все виновны перед всеми и за все) but at the same time, “All is permissible.” These statements seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum in the first sections of the book, representing the wide range of philosophies embraced by the members of the Karamazov family. Throughout the course of the novel, these ideologies charge towards each other, finally colliding in the climactic episode of the story (though we do not see them collide until long after the ‘climactic’ event has taken place). Again, Dostoevsky’s narrator leaves it to his ‘hero’ Alyosha to sort things out after the conflict passes.

 

There is so much more to write about this book, but I have a widget installed that uses an algorithm built on the length of a post, the number of multi-syllabic words and the frequency of semi-obscure literary references to warn the would be blogger if readers will make it through a given post. Said widget informs me that my time is up

 

I am curious to hear your responses. I would love to discuss the points that you find interesting. I would love to hear that anybody else read this book.

our guest host, spencer is (almost) ABD for his PhD in arabic language and literature and lives in jordan (the country) where he enjoys the best chocolate milk in the universe.