The Brothers Karamazov

[Levin]

I'm finally remedying this cavernous hole in my education and reading The Brothers Karamazov (Pevear and Volokhonsky translation). I'm only 60 pages in (they're visting the elder Zosima for the first time). My first impression: there's real wit in these pages! I have read a lot of Russian literature, but nothing has had me laugh out loud like several passages and throwaway lines have so far here.

The narrator's snarky asides about the brothers' father have been my favorite.

And Zosima -- while not so full of humor (but I love that the holy man is wise on the buffoonery of the father and gets it), his responses to those seeking his blessing, especially those who have sinned (murderous wife), lack faith, and have lost loved ones have been pitch perfect according to my own spiritual tuning fork.

To the sinner: stop the self-loathing, and find healing in Christ's love

To the doubter: actively love your neighbors, and when you love, you will believe (perceptive insight: those who love humanity in a general sense often can't stand people individually. Reminds me of all the self-righteous do-gooders who fight for big causes but treat individuals like crap. I'M LOOKING AT YOU GLORIA STEINEM.)

To the grieving: your loved ones have gone to a better place; you should grieve, but don't let it paralyze you; still take care of those left behind.

[LA Ute]

My favorite book of all time, the most important one (to me) that I have ever read.

[TripletDaddy]

My favorite book of all time, the most important one (to me) that I have ever read.

Not the Book of Mormon?

speaks volumes.

[Levin]

My favorite book of all time, the most important one (to me) that I have ever read.

I'm looking forward to the experience of reading it. I suspect if my love of the other Russian greats is any indication, this will be a transformative book for me as well.

[LA Ute]

Not the Book of Mormon?

speaks volumes.

I was talking about fiction. Allegories are a different category.

[TripletDaddy]

I was talking about fiction. Allegories are a different category.

Really? Your post doesn't sound qualified at all. Perhaps it was a Freudian slip....

[Art Vandelay]

Really? Your post doesn't sound qualified at all. Perhaps it was a Freudian slip....

Impressive your are like Bobby Fischer in the park today. You are taking on all comers in several different threads, laying the smack and hitting whatever that stupid bell thing is called.

How long until you turn into a antisemitic nutjob and move to Iceland?

[LA Ute]

Really? Your post doesn't sound qualified at all. Perhaps it was a Freudian slip....

[SeattleUte]

I was talking about fiction. Allegories are a different category.

LOL. Your funniest post ever. You are inside 3D's head!

[SeattleUte]

I had the same reaction to TBK--pleasantly surprised at how funny it was. I had no idea. I kept asking myself if I was supposed to be howling with laughter at this book that is so deeply spiritual in so many ways. The book is really amazing. As much as I love Tolstoy, Dostoevsky seems to me 100 years or so ahead of his time. I total modern mind in many ways.

I defy anyone to sum up what Dostoevsky really believed about God, Jesus, the afterlife, etc.

[SeattleUte]

Tolstoy's most Dostoevsian work is the Kreutzer Sonata. I think you'd love it, Levin.

[Levin]

Tolstoy's most Dostoevsian work is the Kreutzer Sonata. I think you'd love it, Levin.

Thanks for the suggestion. I read a bio of Tolstoy (by Troyant -- very good). I was living in Berlin at the time. Troyant described Tolstoy's reaction to hearing Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata -- Tolstoy was emotionally overpowered, weeping uncontrollably. The next day after reading this passage, I saw an advertisement that Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata would be played that night (at a concert hall on Unter den Linden -- forget the name now). Of course I went. Very beautiful, but I was expecting too much after reading about Tolstoy's reaction.

I read the Kreutzer Sonata in the following weeks. I was dating my wife at the time (long distance -- she was in the States). The novella's message about the inferiority of carnal love to more selfless love did not hit home for me. My then-girlfriend and I had been apart two months and I was feeling it. Berlin is a sensual city already; being away from my future wife was hard enough. The Kreutzer Sonata fell on deaf ears at that moment in my life. I'll have to return to it now.

[CardiacCoug]

I defy anyone to sum up what Dostoevsky really believed about God, Jesus, the afterlife, etc.

I think this is a pretty enlightening statement by Dostoevsky (from a book by Denis Dirschel):

I believe that there is nothing lovelier, deeper, more sympathetic, more rational, more manly and more perfect than the Savior;...If anyone could prove to me that Christ is outside the truth, and if the truth really did exclude Christ, I should prefer to stay with Christ and not the truth.

I can identify with that sentiment in a way. Dostoevsky was a religious man who was full of doubts. I think his attitude toward religion varied a great deal over the course of his life. He was very religious as a young man, then lost his faith before regaining a new and different type of faith in his later years.

[Sleeping in EQ]

This book is in my top three.

[RobinFinderson]

I remember loving The Brothers Karamazov when I read it in Comp Lit. back in 1998. That was more than a decade ago and the details of the book have fogged. I wish I had a better memory... there was Alyosha the believer and another brother who was secular, and there was a bastard brother and a wicked father and a murder and a prostitute? Am I right about the prostitute? There was a third legit brother, no? And it opens with the death of a beloved priest. There was the Grand Inquisitor. At this point it is a lot of loose details without anything to hang on to. I should read it again.

Here is a list of books that I have read that I would really like to read again given my current perspective. What is your list?

The Brothers Karamazov
Don Quixote
Huck Finn
Faust

Here are some books that I have not read even though I know I should read them, and I feel shame for not having read them What is your list for this?

War and Peace
The Great Gatsby (or anything else by Fitzgerald)
Anything by D.H. Lawrence (I own Sons and Lovers, but haven't read more than a few pages)