Reviewed by jamiereadthis on
Additional thoughts, after absorbing it a few days: It's a shockingly joyful book. The themes are dark, some of the darkest, yet it's one of the most passionately joyful books I've ever read. In spite of— or because of— the tragedy within, there's an unexpected exuberance that fairly spills over unchecked. It grips you by the gut and doesn't quite ever let go. There's a fearless complexity, too; as with the Karamazovs, every one; we are all good and we are all evil, we are all guilty and we are all free. At the end of it you come out with Alyosha; with hope, rather than despair, sobered, yet intrinsically flushed with life and the love of it. I promise, it's everything you've heard about this book, and then only more.
"But I'm not lying, it's all true; unfortunately, the truth is hardly ever witty." (Part IV, Book XI, Chap. IX)
"Because I'll tell everything to you alone, because it's necessary, because you're necessary, because tomorrow I'll fall from the clouds, because tomorrow life will end and begin. Have you ever felt, have you ever dreamed that you were falling off a mountain into a deep pit? Well, I'm falling now, and not in a dream. And I'm not afraid, and don't you be afraid either. That is, I am afraid, but I'm delighted! That is, not delighted, but ecstatic... Oh, to hell with it, it's all the same, whatever it is." (Part I, Book III, Chap. III)
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 1 September, 2008: Finished reading
- 1 September, 2008: Reviewed