A review by suneaters
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

A pivotal case study in family dynamics and the manifestations of parental failures upon children in adulthood, all culminating in the bitter but ultimately satisfying truth of who killed the Karamazov patriarch. Daddy Issues™️. Alyosha best boy confirmed. 

In all seriousness, it’s a powerful exploration of family trauma, greed, guilt, and faith with a satirical overtone—don’t let anyone say Dostoevsky was gloomy! He posits important questions to the reader. 

Can your daddy issues make your a murderer? Is that really the devil? Can you try to make your family come together before
your bastard half-brother kills your father because he mistakenly thought your other brother wanted him to and your other other brother is set up as the fall guy?
 

I liked how it ends without resolving everything.
We don't know if they're going to help Mitya escape and we don't know if Ivan will end up with Katerina after all or if Grushenka will decide she loves Mitya after all. We end with the funeral of a young boy called Ilyusha who fell ill at some point after seeing Dmitri beat up his military captain father instead of with some grand conclusion on the story of Ivan, Aleksy, Dmitri, and Smerdyakov. We don't know if Marfa and Grigory have been spoken to by Ivan or Alyosha after Smerdyakov confessed to Ivan.
 

The religious overtones are also very interesting. Alyosha is considered this pure being, so much so that Rakitin spends basically the entire novel trying to shake his faith whether by poking fun at elder Zosima's decaying corpse or trying to introduce him to Grushenka. Alyosha is clearly the author's thought of what people should be like with his innate goodness and love of mankind. He resolves any doubts he has with his simple faith and his belief in the goodness of mankind. He does good and tries to help bring his family together after. He isn't naive or innocent and while his brother sees suffering as a reason for atheism or a cruel God, Alyosha sees it as a resolve to try to put goodness out into the world. 

Ivan is religiously and spiritually conflicted. He oscillates between a belief in a Machiavellian being and atheism. This turmoil from his own cold sophistication and eventual overthinking skepticism eventually leads to
his vivid hallucination of the Devil and his spiral into madness.


Mitya tries desperately to overcome his own jealous and angry nature to become a better man.
His and Ivan's optimistic endings can be seen as authorial optimism for the outlook of mankind overall.
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