“Alexei Fyodoravich Karamazov was the third son of a landowner from our district, Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, well known in his own day (and still remembered among us) because of his dark and tragic death, which happened exactly thirteen years ago and which I shall speak of in its proper place.”
– Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
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Now that I’m finally tackling the book which has been acclaimed as one of the “supreme achievements of world literature” I’m finding it much more readable than expected. It feels like it could have been written yesterday, not in 1880. I’m sure Pevear and Volokhonsky’s highly regarded English translation helps, but I’ve not read any other Dostoevsky to compare. I did read Tolstoy’s War and Peace a few years back and it was like opera; slow and most definitely an acquired taste. I like this much better; seedy with a dark humor.
I’m only a quarter of the way through, and I can’t tell yet which the the three brothers is the most poorly adjusted. The details are all interconnected and doled out slowly. I’m invested and along for the ride. I hear there’s murder later on.