by Fyodor Dostoevsky

isbn: 0679729259
subject: Fiction and Literature
finished: 3/24/1998

This is a huge, sprawling novel about a troubled family in czarist Russia. The brothers and their love/hate relationship with their father provide Dostoevsky an opportunity to present his philosophy through the Grand Inquisitor and Father Zossima's story. The Brothers Karamazov winds and meanders; some of the digressions have digressions of their own, which is why it took me about six months to read the first half of the book. However, I read the second half in a few weeks -- it was hard to stop once I was hooked. My copy is a hardcover from 1933 and unfortunately the translation is not good; I need to pick up a modern edition before I read it again. Highly recommended.