The Brothers Karamazov
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Book Reviews of The Brothers Karamazov
Book Review: Russian's Question of God
Summary: 5 Stars
The Karamzov family came with a reputation of living life to its fullest with a reckless abandoned to wholesomeness and integrity towards another's well being. This manifested itself from the father and yet through three brothers in different ways. Alexi had a strong belief in God. Life in the monastery had taught him that man is guilty before all people on behalf of all and for all human sins. In recognizing this Alexi sees not that man has committed a crime but that his nature leaves him capable of sinning, which renders the ultimate hallmark of faith in God's forgiveness. Ivan's educated man left him with the ability to accept God from a perspective that the concept was likely an invention of man. He could not accept Gods world because his scientific mind could not fathom the parallel mind of Euclidian and those opposite minds of faith ever coming together. This exception leaves the reader with a third alternative, which is a notion that parallel arguments could exist harmoniously without conflict as was discovered in this book. He would sum up with a question: How could the notion of the necessity of God creep in the head of such a wild and wicked animal as man? Dimitri appears, like his father, to be a scoundrel full of enough deceit and selfishness to propel the Karamzov reputation to new lows (highs).¥
As a murder mystery unfolds through elaborate character introduction the reader begins to understand there is going to be a murder but does not know who will be murdered or whom the murderer would be. As the author blends his storyline into his message early on he brings up as he had in other books the question of the times in 1850's to 80's Russia. There existed the over arching argument of church and state; and later in the book science verses God. By the time his characters present their sides there are actually four positions. There is the argument of a separate church and state. There is the argument a cooperative Church and State. There is the argument where the Church evolves to a State. And finally there is the argument where a State evolves to a Church. In the end social values seam to be the common goal where the four arguments end up being the means. However there is one fundamental difference. Under the Church ideals, the individual must live with his conscience, whereas under the State ideals the individual can abdicate all his responsibilities (conscience) to the State. Dostoevsky does a nice job drawing parallels between the dichotomy in a family and that of a society.
Dostoevsky also uses many other characters to examine the conscious of man as he struggles with the concept of God. Is God an invention of man?
Please use a key word cigarroomofbooks.blog and look in the December 07 index for my conclusion and views on the book. I'd love for you to share your thoughts.
Book Review: People ultimately want to be good, but few stray from sin
Summary: 5 Stars
If your going to delve into this book, keep in mind that it is heavy and may take a while. It took me a month. Ivan's High Inquisitor speech took me at least two days. You'll want to have a Bible right beside you at all times, as well, especially if you have never had any Biblical education (like me).
The Brothers Karamazov is, as everyone knows, the story of four brothers: Dmitri the passionate, Ivan the rational, Alyosha the compassionate, and Smerdyakov the bitterly illegitimate. The main event of the story is the murder of these four brothers father, Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov. Fyodor Pavlovich is a base man who was a terrible father and husband in his time. All of his children save Smerdyakov (who really isn't officially recognized as his son) grew up far away from home because Fyodor failed to take care of them while he had them. He's had two wives and both are long dead.
The story starts when the entire family (save poor Smerdyakov) is to meet at the monastary in order to try to solve a strong rift that has grown between Dmitri and Fyodor. Dmitri is angered because his father will not give him money that he feels is his due and is also trying to seduce the woman he loves, Grushenka, with this money. Never mind that Dmitri is also engaged to Katerina Ivanova, a woman of high prestige and dowry who is angered by his betrayal and loved by Ivan.
As you can see we have a rather complex tale on our hands. But it is complex in so many more ways than just the plot. There is a contrast between those of great faith in God and those who are of the enlightened Europe who look upon the Church with disdain. Ivan's ideas in The High Inquisitor are scathing at the kindest. Alyosha is deemed the hero of the novel by the narrator and he is perhaps one of the only people who has a good, unselfish soul. The idea that is so terribly hard to love man when you really get to know him is certainly relevant because almost every character in this novel is a horrible person, looking out only for themselves. Dmitri constantly says "I am a scoundral, but not a thief" when reffering to how he stole 3,000 roubles from Katerina Ivanova but has every intention of returning them.
There are existential, naturalistic, and christian ideas in this book. The overall idea that I took from this book was that ultimately, people want to be good. As Ivan says, criminals are more worried about being excommunicated than being jailed. Humans still will always be able to redeem themselves if they want to. Dmitri wishes only to be an honerable man, Ivan is pained by all the suffering in the world, and Alyosha is the only one who is truly good. While humans DO want to be good and to feel good about all of their actions, few can stay on that path and really follow every conviction that they believe in.
Book Review: Brilliant but hard work!
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me start by saying, this is not an easy read. The first half of this very lengthy novel is pretty slow moving in places. The pace does pick up after this point so stick with it because this novel is masterly.As with Dostoyevsky's other brilliant novel, "Crime and Punishment", "The Brothers Karamazov" is an incisive journey into the psychology of crime. But this is by no means the totality of the work. The span of this novel is immense covering topics as different as the fragility and security of the family, organized religion, the Russian class system, Russia's place in the world in the 19th century and just about anything else you could think of!
The novel primarily focusses on three brothers - Dmitri, Ivan and Alexei Karamazov, the sons of a lethario and self-proclaimed "buffoon", Fyodor. All three have been abandoned by their father at an early age but, for various reasons, all come together for a short period of time. Alexei, the youngest and least like his father, has found religion and joined a monastery. This provides a pivotal focus for much of the first half of the novel which, to some extents, is a doctrine about organized religion Russian style. This, I will admit, got a little tiring; the ideas may well have had relevance when Dostoyevsky was writing but seem to have lost their allure right now.
In particular we see the relationship between Alexei and the "Elder" Zosima who's homilies run for a full 50 pages worth of the novel. This side of the novel also has little influence on the main plot and, in my humble opinion, could be completely cut without detriment.
The focus on the relationship between the brothers and their father is, however, brilliant. Dmitri and his father end up falling in love with the same woman - Grushenka - a woman of rather dubious reputation. Dmitri, meanwhile, is also in love with a more upper class woman, Katerina who is also in a relationship with Ivan.
This double love triangle not only provides wonderful material for the insights into love, lust and jealousy, it also provides the background for the key event of the novel - the murder of Fyodor. The suspicion immediately falls on the eldest son, Dmitri, and much of the novel focusses on this and a subsequent trial.
This part of the novel which, is much the greatest, can be recommended without reservation. Yes it is a long, very long book but the range and depth of ideas, feelings and thoughts are quite remarkable. Set a couple of weeks aside and read this book.
Book Review: Tormented by faith and rationalism
Summary: 5 Stars
This sprawling novel may put many readers off: all of the main characters seem to live in some sort of mental torment. All of their decisions are conflicted , and this makes the characters hyper-real, in some sense.
Welcome to the Karamazov Family! The "patriarch," a drunken, miserly lecher with no redeeming qualities, has managed to produce four sons via three mothers. Dmitri, brother #1, is what the Thai would call "100 percent male," loaded with testosterone and continually in trouble with women: an ex-soldier whose motto would be "Eat, Drink and be Merry" if he could only figure out the "Be Merry" part. Ivan, brother #2, is the intellectual, college-educated and austere. Alyosha, brother #3, is the baby of the family and everyone's favorite: his is the life of the Spirit, and he enters the story dressed as a monk. Brother #4 is the unacknowledged bastard, Smerdyakov, the daughter of the town madwoman "Stinking Lisaveta," whom the lecherous father must have taken advantage of at sometime in the past. Smerdyakov is a misanthropic narcissist, to say the least.
The novel begins by introducing us to these powerful characters and their conflicts --- almost incredibly, the lecherous patriarch, Fyodor, is locked in a conflict with his oldest son, Dmitri, over a woman of dubious virtue, Grushenka. And the story continues to be interesting, until suddenly Ivan, the second son and the "intellectual," opens his mouth and...delivers. The two chapters where Ivan unburdens his soul, "Rebellion" and "The Grand Inquisitor," are quite likely to sear themselves into your memory forever. "Rebellion" is a heart-rending description of "the problem of Evil" for the Christian faith, and "The Grand Inquisitor" --- well, you need to read this for yourself. What I find remarkable is that Dostoevsky, clearly a man of faith, somehow summoned the courage and honesty to write the most damning criticisms ever leveled at Christianity. These criticisms are followed by long chapters on the Elder Zosima, which are very moving discussions of God and Faith.
Alyosha, naturally, is the man in the middle. He respects Ivan, but he loves his Elder.
As you turn the pages, this entrancing novel of faith and ideas suddenly turns into an absorbing murder mystery. I don't think I'll spoil anything by saying that the creepy patriarch, Fyodor, winds up dead at the hands of...who??
So, fasten your seat-belts and enjoy the ride.
Book Review: An Important Book
Summary: 5 Stars
I was a Russian literature major in college and, although I was assigned BK in at least one of my classes, I remember falling behind on the readings and guiltily faking my way through the exam. A few years out of college now, I recently took a couple weeks of vacation to do the appropriate penance for my earlier failure: to read what most people think is the masterpiece of Dostoevsky's literary career.Those reading this presumably know the rough outline of the novel: a father and his three (possibly four) sons are introduced, their relationships are described and developed, the father is murdered, and one of the sons is accused and tried. On the surface, this plot doesn't sound like much, hardly enough for a book of this length, but Dostoevsky is so committed to painting rich characters and relationships that this novel becomes enormously complex.
My reactions to the novel were not primarily intellectual but emotional and spiritual. The overwhelming sense I got as I read BK was that here is an author and a book that take themselves seriously. Dostoevsky is not satisfied with anything trivial or small and does not shrink from such questions as the meaning of life or the existence of God. There is something profoundly refreshing and enjoyable about reading a book that casts its net wide.
Having completed the book, I also found it remarkably difficult to summarize what exactly it is "about." The simple answer is that it's a murder mystery. In reality, it becomes almost a parable of humanity: Ivan, the intellectual brother; Dmitry, the passionate brother; Alyosha, the pious brother; Smerdyakov, the vengeful servant/half-brother. Each bears responsibility for his father's murder; each struggles to learn how to live a life of meaning.
In the end, we each identify with the brothers Karamazov. We become them, and Dostoevsky asks us to share in their passions, their doubts, their faith, and their guilt. As a result, reading The Brothers Karamazov thoughtfully is, as many other reviewers have pointed out, a transformative experience.
Some authors write for themselves: to add to their reputation or to give birth to an artistic creation they've been gestating. Dostoevsky had plenty of talent and was subject to fits of inspiration, but he wrote only when he thought he had something important to say. In this novel, his subject is no less than humanity itself and, given the patience and effort to digest his writing, you will learn.