Genre: Philosophical Novel
Pages: 1013
Some perspective on big books and the experience of reading one. A couple of years ago, I started the widely popular classic ‘War and Peace’ by Tolstoy and could only finish book one before I called it quits. Now however, Dostoyevsky’s ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ becomes my first ever ‘big’ book (pages 900 or above) that I’ve read. So what has changed during these two years of reading? And how could one manage to finish a book this overwhelmingly big?
I definitely lacked the knowledge of Russian history required as a prerequisite for reading the war novel ‘War and Peace’. That’s step one: having a background knowledge. Wanting to read a big book isn’t enough; to be able to finish one, a reader needs to have at least some knowledge about the book, its literary fame and the reasons for it, and most importantly, the prerequisite information that most of these classical books require.
Although I was earnest to start ‘War and Peace’, I wasn’t aware if my earnestness would fuel for the whole journey of reading it to the end. Not only passion, but a humble and patient mind-map is also required to start and finish a novel that’s a thousand pages long. If you’re methodical about your reading, like me, then it helps to go through the book’s content page and see how the book is divided, so that you could accordingly set your reading agenda for reading it.
Again, know that it’ll require patience, not only in the start, but more so in its midst when the book will start testing your patience.
Testing!, that’s what big books are, as per my initial impressions. Holding such a chunkster for long hours of reading is quite tiring. Tiring still, is also the never-ending pages and chapters. After its mid-point, one starts to feel, or at least I did, a bit overwhelmed both by the story and by its week-long effects on one’s mind.
Yet despite it all, the rewards of reading a big book are just as great, if not more. In its gradual and patient story building, the whole experience of reading doubles: it’s more detailed, more alive, more placid, more engrossing, and overall more deeply rewarding.
What I’m saying may or may not apply to all big novels out there, but Dostoyevsky’s excellent ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ definitely provides all the double effects discussed above.
The novel starts with Fyodor Dostoyevsky Karamazov, a violent, insensitive, loud-mouth, and disgraceful person, and so, a similar father and townsman. He has three sons from his two wives: the restless and self-guilty Dmitri, the intellectual rebel Ivan, and the spiritually heroic Alyosha; and also a rumored illegitimate son, Smerdyakhov. Being the victim of his personality, Fyodor abandons all his sons as soon as their mothers pass away, and instead devotes his love to his money and property, rejecting any or all inheritance to his sons. As expected, his sons’ hatred for him and his vile personality grows stronger with their age and their developing need for money – and unfortunately, it reaches to the point of murder. Welcome to an epic drama!
If divided into two parts, I enjoyed reading the first part of the novel that takes place before the murder where character and story developments take place, more than the second part, which mostly is about the case and long speeches in court.
As for the literary and philosophical essence of this book, I’d quote Joyce Carol Oates, ‘There is no writer who better demonstrates the conditions and fluctuations of the creative mind than Dostoyevsky, and nowhere more astonishingly than in The Brothers Karamazov’.
It’s all-in-one package: a thrilling drama, emotionally rich, and philosophically complex and nuanced; and at once, a brilliant and astounding study of human, all too human characteristics: innocence, guilt, violence, forgiveness, lust, jealousy, spirituality, love, betrayal, and a range of other unusual but human traits.
In each character, and in each scene, the reader is guaranteed to come across sometimes nuanced, sometimes stark representations of the very complex human traits.
Dostoyevsky’s understanding and portrayal of subjects like faith, morality, crime, and human suffering in ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ is truly commendable and utterly astonishing. I’d like to talk more in-depth about the characters and these themes, but there are much better commentaries on this masterful novel than mine.
All I can do is recommend you to read this deeply rewarding book, and in doing so, develop your own intimate and close understanding of it. Excellently worthy!
Ratings 5/5 ***** November 8, 2020_