Rating: 
Summary: when too much prose is a BAD thing...
Review: 'The Brothers Karamazov' is my second foray into the world of Fyodor Dostoyevsky. My first was 'Crime and Punishment', a book I thoroughly enjoyed. In reading all the gushing praises by amazon.com reviewers I thought 'The Brothers Karamazov' would be every bit as good, if not better. Wrong, very wrong.'The Brothers Karamazov' is a epic novel, both in terms of scope and size (..over 900 pages long). The reader is exposed to the turbulent lives of the (three) Karamazov brothers, their father, and friends/lovers. The main story involves the jealousy of the Karamazov over a certain woman and a related murder, and how the Russian justice system deals with the situation. Interesting? Yes, generally. There are some very dramatic and moving moments, and Dostoyevsky does an excellent job with the characterizations of the main protagonists. Yet all is not well. My main complaint with 'The Brothers Karamazov' is Dostoyevsky's constant side-tracks into very long-winded theological and philisophical discussions. I found these to be excruciatingly dull, especially when composed as a single paragraph spanning *several pages*!! They added little (if anything) to the story, and they seemed to serve as a forum for the author to blather away on his own personal beliefs. No doubt Dostoyevsky was a brilliant man. But in 'The Brothers Karamazov' he did a very poor job of integrating serious theological/philosophical issues with the story. All this worked much better in his masterpiece 'Crime and Punishment'. Bottom line: interesting story with flashes of brilliance. However Dostoyevsky 'over-eggs the pudding' with philosophical noise which this reader found to be irritating rather than enlightening.
Rating: 
Summary: fire in the belly
Review: all the characters have that fire in the belly. right, wrong, good, bad, doesn't matter: they all are authors of their own fates, struggling to write that fate in the heavens. they heave and quiver and rage and laugh, and you can feel it radiating off the page like heat from a bonfire. and they can think, too. not about the trivial aristocratic fluff that dominates the small and crass minds of tolstoy's aristocrats. oh no. these characters can strip away the veneer of gentility and expose it to the harsh light of reason with a flick of the tongue, thought at the speed of light. has there ever been a better exposition of WHY doubt of god's benevloence is inevitable for the thoughtful human than that expressed by ivan in the crucial chapters "absolute rebellion" and "the grand inquisitor"? the hair on my neck rises just thinking about the heavy metal--yeah, literary heavy metal--ivan spits out, the sheer fury and conviction and angst of his thoughts. "that one child should suffer....?" the sensitivity, the passion..... that's the stuff, those are the questions--the important questions--about dealing with life, with suffering, with injustice, with the world, the ones that make or break us. ah, i could rant all day about how good this book is. it contains one weakness: the parallel plot about the boys isn't necessary, but the literary craftsmanship it represents really proves how truly magnificent a writer ol' fyador was. great book. the plot's good, too. bit of a mystery, bit of a courtroom thriller, bit of an initiation novel (alyosha's journey from innocence to experience), bit of a (seriously good) philosophical treatise. in my humble opinion, the single finest novel i've ever read (though i've yet to read LES MISERABLES), and the perfect antidote for the bloated, dull-witted, thoroughly over-rated WAR & PEACE. read it before it's too late!
Rating:
Summary: fire in the belly
Review: all the characters have that fire in the belly. right, wrong, good, bad, doesn't matter: they all are authors of their own fates, struggling to write that fate in the heavens. they heave and quiver and rage and laugh, and you can feel it radiating off the page like heat from a bonfire. and they can think, too. not about the trivial aristocratic fluff that dominates the small and crass minds of tolstoy's aristocrats. oh no. these characters can strip away the veneer of gentility and expose it to the harsh light of reason with a flick of the tongue, thought at the speed of light. has there ever been a better exposition of WHY doubt of god's benevloence is inevitable for the thoughtful human than that expressed by ivan in the crucial chapters "absolute rebellion" and "the grand inquisitor"? the hair on my neck rises just thinking about the heavy metal--yeah, literary heavy metal--ivan spits out, the sheer fury and conviction and angst of his thoughts. "that one child should suffer....?" the sensitivity, the passion..... that's the stuff, those are the questions--the important questions--about dealing with life, with suffering, with injustice, with the world, the ones that make or break us. ah, i could rant all day about how good this book is. it contains one weakness: the parallel plot about the boys isn't necessary, but the literary craftsmanship it represents really proves how truly magnificent a writer ol' fyador was. great book. the plot's good, too. bit of a mystery, bit of a courtroom thriller, bit of an initiation novel (alyosha's journey from innocence to experience), bit of a (seriously good) philosophical treatise. in my humble opinion, the single finest novel i've ever read (though i've yet to read LES MISERABLES), and the perfect antidote for the bloated, dull-witted, thoroughly over-rated WAR & PEACE. read it before it's too late!
Rating:
Summary: great
Review: Anyone who tells you that this is better than War and Peace is lying. But its still good.
Rating:
Summary: Without question, the greatest novel ever written
Review: As always, Dostoevsky is the master of encompassing the entire scope of the human search for meaning, while maintaining an intense, interesting, and enjoyable work of fiction. This is, without question, the greatest novel ever written.
Rating:
Summary: MIRACLE
Review: As I write this, there are but 8 reviews of "The Brothers Karamazov" listed on this site. Let me say that again, sports fans. 8 reviews only of "The Brothers Karamazov" listed on this site. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8! Yet, last I checked there were ... wait for it ... 865 reviews of "Memoirs of a Geisha." 8 HUNDRED. And SIXTY-FIVE. Yaaaaay, world. Go, go, go!
Rating:
Summary: The best fiction I've ever read.
Review: Dostoevski has an incredible ability to create realistic, life-like characters and describes their thoughts and feelings with great insight and clarity. After having read Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment, it is obvious he was not only an expert novelist, but also a first rate psychologist who had a profound understanding of the human being. A true masterpiece!
Rating:
Summary: Thank you, translators! Most important book in history!
Review: For those who are looking for an introduction to Dostoevsky, any one of the translations by Pevear and Volokhonsky should be chosen. For those who have read Dostoevsky in English before and would like to see how the greatest novel ever written can suddenly seem like the greatest improvement of all time, buy and read this translation. Doestoevsky is the human condition's greatest voyager, the greatest prophet of the modern period and the most subtle yet intense dramatician. He writes with the deepest, most sincere will for human good in the face of horror and tragedy. BK is part soap-opera (dad wants son's romantic interest wants dad's eldest son who wants to kill dad), part murder mystery, part historical document, part love story, part philosophical novel; yet the novel remains, at every turn and phase, giving and noursishing. It becomes the ultimate mystery to think, at novel's end, that this masterpiece was simply Part One to a story FD could not finish before he died. You may never do yourself as much good in a single task as you will by reading the Brothers Karamazov translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky!
Rating:
Summary: Anybody who can READ-should read
Review: Forget about the size, the long names, the unfamiliar structure of this novel and read it! Read it with your heart, mind, and soul. A whole world of characters and ideas will awaken within your imagination. Put down that TV remote control, or the latest mass appeal paperback, and...
Rating:
Summary: The three faces of life
Review: Fyodor Karamazov is a widower with three male children. Since he is an alcoholic depravate, they are raised in different cities by different families. They get reunited with their father when they are adults. Dimitri has been a soldier. He is passionate, drunken, gambler and irresponsible: he represents the life of the senses. Ivan is intelligent, atheist and has a bad temper that explodes easily: he represents the life of the intellect, the mind that is always searching for answers through reason and logic, and gets enraged by his inability to find the Truth. Alyosha, the youngest, is a sweet, temperate and humanitarian man: he represents the life of the spirit. Love and compassion pave the way for his finding peace of spirit. The father is the harsh reality of life and the human vices which confront every person through their lives. Dimitri and Fyodor try to get the same woman, a situation that produces fights and a bitter confrontation between them, getting almost to the point of murder. Ivan wants to convince his father in an intellectual way, but it's Alyosha who is the strongest: he uses love and forgiving. The plot is twisted and hard, but every chapter reveals the complex relationships between flesh, brain and soul, as represented by the conflicts between the three brothers. The other important character puzzles me: Smerdiachtkov is a servant who in reality is the son of Fyodor and an unidentified woman. He is half-retarded, a confused guy who is half beast and half man. I'll have to reread the book to see if I can make ends meet. But this is my own interpretation. It shouldn't be taken too rigidly, for probably you'll find other meanings and interpretation: the book, as a classic, is sufficiently wide and deep to convey different messages to different people. This book represents Dostoevsky's desperate yet brilliant spriritual search. As in most Russian literature the characters are tormented, convoluted and seem to be torturing themselves endlessly over spiritual confusions. Except, of course, for Alyosha, a quasi representation of Christ and Christianism, whatever its branch. Other reviewers agree that this book is an eye-opener: it leaves its mark on your mind and your soul.
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