Review of Brothers Karamazov

Years ago I came across a YouTube video where Lex and Jordan Peterson had a conversation about whether this was one of the best books ever written. I thought this was pretentious, since that description is easily thrown around for a lot of books.

I had been meaning to read it after already tackling the author’s shorter works like Notes from the Underground and White Nights. The edition is a hefty one, around 1000+ pages, so I found it daunting to start. However, the moment I began reading I was immersed in the world, the characters, the complexity, and the conversations. For the first 200–400 pages there is mostly world building, yet the writing itself is so masterful. I am pretty sure a lot is lost through translation, and yet it still made me pause at several moments. Before I knew it, I realized I was reading one of the greatest works of literature ever written. It felt like I was engaging with a living, breathing, complex world.

And it is not just one or two moments. All throughout there are conversations and monologues that leave you stunned. The Grand Inquisitor. Father Zosima’s reflections on his life. The public procurator’s speeches at the trial. Even the ridiculous yet strangely profound things that come out of Fyodor Pavlovich’s mouth. The book is full of scenes like this that burn themselves into your memory.

Some of the discussions, especially between Ivan and Alyosha, will definitely stay with me forever. Dostoevsky argues both sides with such force that you feel the full weight of belief and doubt. The discussions about free will and suffering, “if there were no God it would be necessary to invent him.” Or even sections like, “people are even more certain than ever that they are completely free, and indeed they themselves have brought us their freedom and have laid it humbly at our feet. For nothing has ever been more unendurable to man and human society than freedom.”

The discussions of free will were fascinating, especially the idea that men will sacrifice their freedom to avoid the paralysis of choice and the suffering that comes with it. Again, I do feel that we see mostly what we want from a piece of literature, and this is not much different, but it does bring you to ask the question.

Even the smaller characters are alive with depth. Kolya (actually one of my favourite characters in the book actually) the boy far too clever for his age, felt like a mirror of adults who think they have mastered reason but are still just children worrying about appearances. Alyosha, in contrast, does not rationalize. He accepts life with all its contradictions. That is why people are drawn to him. And that line from Father Zosima, “The main thing is that you stop telling lies to yourself. The one who lies to himself and believes his own lies comes to a point where he can distinguish no truth either within himself or around him, and thus enters into a state of disrespect towards himself and others.” is one that stays with you.

One particular scene that struck me was the conversation between Ivan and Smerdyakov. On the surface it almost seems like casual dialogue, but Smerdyakov subtly foreshadows his intentions without being overt. The first time I read it, I was puzzled, but on rereading I realized how Dostoevsky used Ivan’s intelligence against him, and how masterfully he planted the seeds for later events. It added a whole new layer of depth to the novel and made me appreciate just how carefully constructed it all is.

Dostoevsky lays bare the raw essence of what it means to be human. You might scorn some of the characters initially, but you realise all too quickly that this is hypocritical, because we all have the propensity to be any of these characters given the right stimulus and circumstances. In fact, to love and to judge is to fully imagine yourself and see yourself in them.

To argue yourself into one position, then into its opposite, and still feel justified either way. He somehow weaves these grand philosophical ideas and discourse into a gripping murder mystery wrapped around family, morality, faith, and parenthood. Another thing I never expected is this was quite funny at times, sometimes some passages will get me smiling at how ridiculous some of it is.

This writeup does not come close to doing this book justice, I will read this again and again, and I’m sure my takeaway will be different or how I will find a new angle I have missed.

This is one of those books that genuinely changed my outlook on the world. It is thought provoking, humbling, unforgettable. It is one of those books that makes you realize you aren’t special or original, and that all those esoteric thoughts you think are exclusive to you are simply part of the human experience. And though this was written in the 1800s, we still grapple in the modern day with the same issues, making it a timeless piece that remains deeply relevant to what it means to be human.

For no matter how much we advance technologically as a society, human nature remains constant. Books like this remind us to take a step back, check our hubris, and realize we are simply human beings, creatures of passion, emotion, and contradiction. And yet it is exactly this contradiction that makes us human.

Worth every single second.