The Brothers Karamazov
By Fyodor Dostoevsky
Liveright Publishing, 9781324095101, May 2024, 928 pp.
The Short of It:
Immensely entertaining. Not what you’d expect.
The Rest of It:
Dostoevsky’s final, greatest novel, The Brothers Karamazov, paints a complex and richly detailed portrait of a family tormented by its extraordinarily cruel patriarch, Fyodor Pavlovich, whose callous decisions slowly decimate the lives of his sons–the eponymous brothers Karamazov–and lead to his violent murder. ~ Bookshop.org
This review is going to be very different from my others.
Three brothers:
- Dmitri Karamazov – The eldest, dramatic
- Ivan Karamazov – The middle brother, brilliant
- Alexei (Aloysha) Karamazov – The youngest, a novice monk
One nasty father:
- Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov. a difficult sort
The Women:
- Katerina Ivanovna, Dmitri’s abandoned fiancée
- Grushenka, a fiery pistol of a woman and the object of desire for many
The murder:
Not a spoiler but Fyodor, the father makes some horrendous decisions and pits his two sons against one another. Dimitri and Ivan and their on-again, off-again admiration for these two women, Katerina and Grushenka, create the ongoing conflict throughout the novel that keeps the pages turning. At 928 pages, this is a good thing.
Money, also plays a huge role. Dmitri is often without any. He borrows and borrows from both his father and Katerina and finds himself begging for a handout wherever he can get one.
Ivan, not always in town, happens to spend some time with the “fam” and it just gets more complex from there.
Alexei (Aloysha), is a novice monk, truly a good soul trying to always make the best of things and doing his best to do damage control between his brothers and his father.
Eventually, all the action culminates into Fyodor’s murder. Who did it? It seems as if Dimitri did the deed. Especially since money has gone missing and there is supposedly a witness to him leaving the house.
The witness though, is unreliable and possibly Fyodor’s illegitimate son and servant. That’s right, Fyodor keeps Smerdyakov in his home but not as his son, but as his servant. So the motive is there. Could he have killed Fyodor?
There is a lot of drama between the women as they call each other beasts and monsters! Jealousy unlike anything you’ve seen. They both want what they can’t have. Their loyalties are all over the place. I wanted to slap them a few times.
The murder is tried in court. The lead-up to the court case is riveting. Dmitri is arrested and taken in. Ivan and Aloysha wring their hands over the entire thing. What can be done? It’s not looking good for Dmitri and honestly, he’s not helping his case with all of the romantic dramatics that follow along with his reputation for being a deadbeat. Would he kill his father for a lousy 3000 roubles?
The family story goes a little bit sideways at the introduction of a bullied schoolboy, Ilyusha. Aloysha encounters him one day as he is walking about town. The town boys are taunting him and Aloysha steps in to defend him. Aloysha’s brother insults Ilyusha’s father and the boy bites Aloysha in retaliation. Not long afterward, Ilyusha falls deathly ill.
Without spoilers, the ending of the book is interesting. It’s not cut and dry and much is left to the reader’s own interpretation but the final pages are quite lovely. Overall, I enjoyed this romp through a classic that has long been on my list of must reads.
Source: Purchased
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