The Brothers Karamazov

An exciting mystery novel here. I believe that this book is seriously underrated for what it is and highly recommend this as a bit of light reading. 

Characters:

So, my favourite character is probably Aloysha Karamazov - purely because he is the most three-dimensional of the brothers. He is neither here, nor there. A pious man, he is one of the suspects of patricide and therefore, even though he is a man of God, he is still a suspect of our imaginations. A brilliant juxtaposition of prejudice by Dostoyevsky - typically Dostoyevskyan in a character (like Mr Golyadkin in The Double. Coming soon) to have a side of piety or righteousness, then a larger side that is withheld from us as readers. 

Themes:

The best theme in any Dostoyevsky novel is concealment. Concealment of information, character, self, philosophy, psychology, true motives, intelligence, capacity etc etc. In this novel, a true work of concealing genius is formatted around the character of Aloysha and we, as readers are given information in bitesized amounts as the novel unfolds around us. 

Storyline:

The storyline is brilliantly intricate and as my favourite character is Aloysha, I love how you can choose which character your Dostoyevskyan world revolves around. I mean, some may have Dmitri as their's, but mine is Aloysha. I just think that he is one of the most crafted characters in European literature, ever! The storyline seeks to hide things from the reader in plain sight - so we may miss small details that end up having a massive effect on the outcome of the novel and the dystopian crumble of a Europe around us makes the patricide of this novel seem only more mysterious, sinister and psychologically motivated. 

Verdict: 

Out of 9 (3 marks for each section)

I will give this book 7 out of 9.

3/3 for characters - purely because of the juxtaposition between Dmitri and Aloysha Karamazov. 

2/3 for the themes - They're great, but sometimes in Dostoyevskyan fiction, they can get a little repetitive.

2/3 for the storyline - Careful of not to miss things that are so intricate you wouldn't pick them up even if you were critically analysing the novel. Sometimes the whole thing is a little tricky to follow down the winding path.