Note that I actually listened to the book through Audible because I have a brain injury that makes reading harder for me now. But this is a classic book and I'm sure that there's virtually no difference between the Audible and the Kindle book I linked. On Audible, if you have Audible Plus, it's free with your membership. This Kindle book was 99 cents (USD) at the time of this writing. Naturally, the book is also available in soft and hard back.

This is an epic. I'm using the term "epic" to describe the length and breadth of this book, not the amount of enjoyment I got from it. It's 700-1200 pages, depending on the book you purchase (size and print variations) and 37 listening hours on Audible. I consider that 37 hours of my life I'll never get back.

This book covers the story of 4 brothers whose father is murdered. It begins with them as infants and covers much (too much) of their life until that fateful day. It also covers the trial on the brother accused and fallout.

People who enjoy Russian literature, super long stories that seem to ramble, and Fyodor Dostoevsky as many consider this one of his best works.

The last 1/3 of the book. Honestly, once things got underway with the arrest and trial, the book was actually pretty good. But I feel that the 1st 24 hours of reading was mostly unnecessary. Some of those bits and pieces could have been spread in and around the trial and the rest could have been simply omitted.

The 1st 2/3 of the book. I feel like the 1st 2/3 could have been mostly cut with the most important parts inserted around the trial portions. Otherwise, I didn't find the 1st 24 hrs of listening to be enjoyable. It took me almost a month and a half to get through a 37 hour book because I simply didn't enjoy it. I also didn't like that so many characters had more than 1 nickname, which I found very difficult to keep up with. Not to mention, 2 characters had virtually identical names. In print, 4 of the 6 letters are the same and when you listen to them, they sound practically the same. The plot was slow. The story was filled with lots of details that the narrator said would be of importance or would be mentioned more later. When they came up later, I had difficulty remembering what they related to, though that's from me taking so long to get through the book since I didn't enjoy most of it.

Tell folks not to read it. I have since spoken to 2 other people who have read the book and neither of them enjoyed it either. It's possible that some of the problem is that we are mostly readers of modern fiction and aren't so used to long, epic novels that literally cover a lifetime of information.

I don't recommend this book because not only I didn't enjoy it, but 2 other people I've spoken with also didn't. I don't know how it got rated 4.6 stars. Perhaps if you enjoy epic novels, Russian literature (which I thought I did), or other books by the same author (this was my 1st by him), you will enjoy this book more.

To be fair, when I looked this book up on Wikipedia, there were a number of famous people who report loving this book.

Albert Einstein considered this book the supreme summit of all literature.

Sigmund Freud considered it "the most magnificent novel ever written."

William Faulkner was supposed to have reread the book regularly and claimed it to be his greatest literary inspiration next to Shakespeare and the Bible.

Russian Vladimir Putin said it was one of his favorite books.

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Created Feb 13, 2022 at 2:03pm • Submit your own review...