Once more to the Russians

I might be at this a long time, but I have decided to wade into The Brothers Karamazov. I've owned it for years, but not yet taken it up. Up until now Dostoevsky and I have not been very good friends. I read A Gentle Spirit, in which “a man lays bare his tortured soul” (oh yes, he does), which ends with the most dismal paragraph in all of literature. Then I read Crime and Punishment, which you also do well to read and keep your sanity, and as I have said here before: there aren’t enough despicable adjectives in the English language to describe what I think of Raskolnikov and his repulsive delusions of superiority.

But apparently, apparently, The Brothers Karamazov is different.

When the first chapter described a woman who created imaginary obstacles in her romantic life, so she could imitate Ophelia, jump off a cliff and die as a tragedy, it wasn’t looking good (though that was actually somewhat humorous, as it is narrated seemingly to make a point about how absurd some folks can be), then a few chapters later is the wife who dies of nervous hysteria, but it is actually not too bad so far. What’s more, a character has made an appearance whom I quite like for now, which I have come not to expect readily from the Russians.

So, I am telling you all this in the hope that it might motivate and shame me into finishing it ...