The Brothers Karamazov

Fyodor Dostoyevski (1821-1881)

A grating religious fanatic, an ultrasnobby intellectual, and a prick army officer: these are the Brothers Karamazov. This is said to be one of the greatest examinations of psychology in literature, well I'll do some psychology right here, if you like this book you need some serious meds.

Books about exciting subjects, like the murder of a hated father and the rivalry between sons culminating in a dramatic trial, should not be boring (See Dick, Moby). The book opens with Alyosha (the religious guy) and his mentor Zosima. We get their philosophy for about 300 pages. It's very boring. Nothing happens. Dosty tells us about God, man's morality etc. when he could have easily shown us these things with the characters' actions.

Dmitri is the jerk soldier who fights people and is trying to get with a whore named Grushenka. He's an ahole like his father who is also trying to get with Grushenka.

Honestly I don't really want to review this book it was so bad. Philosophy is great in a philosophy book. When you try and jam it down my throat and ruin a decent story it doesn't work. Brothers Karamazov has seized last place in the Classics I've read so far. Congrats Wizard of Oz, you are off the hook!

Rating 1/10. Barely got through this one. The bad news is that this book was horrible. The worse news is that there are 6 more Dostoyevsky titles on the list.