November 1, 2004

Book Notes: The Brothers K

I'm almost done. This book is blowing my mind. The final third of it is entirely made up of a criminal trial - it almost reads like a true crime novel. I cannot put it down. It's a total page-turner, I can't wait to get back to it.

His comments on tabloid journalism, and the spectacle of high-profile criminal cases, and the propensity of females to fall in love with murderers (I bet there are some chicks out there right now swooning over Scott Peterson) - It's all so familiar, it feels like he is critiquing Court TV, etc. Like one of the witnesses starts weeping about how some Russian magazine called "Gossip" printed untrue things about her ... and one of the other witnesses makes the observation that while, yes, as a moral society, people do abhor crime and punish it - blah blah - but on a deeper level, people LOVE crime. They LOVE disorder, and they LOVE to watch the spectacle.

Fascinating.

Poor Ivan. Poor Ivan. I knew there was a reason I liked him the best. Because, in a way, (with his night-time visitor - anyone remember?) he is the most tormented.

Great damn book. It's not ponderous at all. I am flying through it. Now we are into the witnesses for the prosecution and defense chapters ... Brilliant.

I still have no idea how it will all turn out.

I read the chapter about Ivan's night-time visitor 3 times. Terrifying.

Posted by sheila
Comments

After all these years refusing to read it, I am convinced. I am off to the book store.

Posted by: DBW at November 2, 2004 10:59 AM

Dude, you're gonna flip.

There are a couple of deadly-long snooze-fest chapters (Father Zossima's Life Story) or whatever ... but trudge through that, and you'll be fine. It was drudgery, but now I'm in the pay-off section.

Dostoevsky's observations about criminals, the criminal psychology, guilt, redemption are beyond compare.

Posted by: red at November 2, 2004 11:07 AM

"The Dude abides."

Posted by: Jeff Lebowski at November 2, 2004 11:14 AM

What a coincidence, I had read Brothers K in college, then again about 10 years ago, and I recently ran across a new translation by Larissa Volokhonsky and Richard Pevear, who are re-doing all of classic Russian lit. I got my cc of BroK today from Barnes/Noble, will dive into it soon. They are supposed to be far better translators than previous ones.

Posted by: John Cunningham at November 3, 2004 11:48 PM