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'Hurrah for Karamazov'

If there is one book which one should read at least once in their lifetime, it is this.
I can never review it, for it is much more than a book for me. So I will just attempt to describe its impact and scribble whatever comes to my mind.

I read it for the first time in 2019. It was patiently waiting to be read for quite sometime but I somehow did not pick it up until then, mainly because I was intimidated by its size.
And then, I read it at that precise moment when I needed it the most; and it changed me; which is not an exaggeration.
To properly explain myself, it was a very confusing time for me. I was lost and dejected. I happened to have taken leaves for a completely different reason but at that meditated time, that reason disappeared and hence I picked it up, mostly as a distraction for this two weeks time-period, completely unaware that all the answers which I have been trying to find, lay right there in this book.
And this was it. I read it and I was a different person. Obviously it did not happen magically, it was gradual, a surreal undertone to the various complications of the being.
If someone asks me what changed, I might not be able to exact the actuality of it, yet it wasn't the same anymore.
Since then, I keep coming back to it every now and then. And this being my second complete reread, I feel healed yet again.

And yes, this would not happen to everyone.
Yet, I do suppose, the philosophy that lies beneath this extremely wondrous tale is one of its kind and will definitely keep you wondering and definitely mark a permanent impact on your soul, which is enough reason to read it at least once.

The Karamazov brothers, Mitya, Ivan and Alyosha, in every way complement each other; bringing out the undertones of the various human emotions, the very shrewdness of it, the disguise of virtues, the lies of the ethics; the devil and the God alike. And in all this, they are extremely sublime and truthful, perhaps even in their dishonesty. The youngest is the most sensible (yet there are moments of angst which Dostoevsky would have explored in the next novel) while the elder brothers are torn with their sensual ideas of being, in their own unique way.

No, gentlemen of the jury, they have their Hamlets, but we still have our Karamazovs!

What better quote to sum them up than this.

Even the minor characters/stories have such a deep impact (be it Father Zossima's visitor, Ivan's visitor in his nightmare, the Grand Inquisitor) that calling these minors is an injustice. They widen the horizon of the psychology of our main characters which in turn resonate through the reader.

The side story of the schoolboys is extremely powerful as well. Ilusha's helplessness and Kolya's vain innocence is simply serene and surreal.
Be it the madness of Lise or the nihilism of Smerdyakov, the sensuality of Grushenka or the fierce pride and fury of Katerina, the pedantic cunningness of Rakitin or the vileness honesty of Fyodor (our father Karamazov); Dostoevsky succeeds in every aspect of creating a story which comprehends life so perfectly that it might make you feel indebted to him forever.

Just the fact that the sequel to this could never be written, which in Dostoevsky’s own words was the actual novel, makes me feel extremely vexed.

I read somewhere once, that you owe it to yourself to read it, and I cannot agree more.

If I go on any further, I'll never finish.
If I attempt to quote, I'll quote the entire book.

One day, I dream to read it in the original :)