Amazing narration & brilliant story

Amazing narration by Simon Vance & brilliant story. It came alive as I listened to it.

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A classic, really?

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No, the characters are all just so unpleasant and the story is nothing to get excited about. Half the time I found myself thinking "Who cares?" Add to that a boring delivery by the narrator means this is a book I wouldn't want to inflict on any friends.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

A damp squib. Like Dostoevsky just got fed up with writing and decided to end it there, and who can blame him?

Would you be willing to try another one of Simon Vance’s performances?

His characterizations were all the same and his delivery quite monotonous. The clearly well-to-do characters often had a north London twang to their accents, which was absolutely misplaced. So no, I would think twice before listening to another book read by Simon Vance.

If this book were a film would you go see it?

There is a Russian version and I'd be intrigued to see how they interpret the characters.

Any additional comments?

Plenty of better books out there.

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7 people found this helpful

Tough but good.

Dostoyevsky had a very specific way of writing. I went through many of his other works beforehand, with this book in mind the entire time, and enjoyed most of them more, sadly. He is a master for a reason, but sometimes his books can be very rough to read or listen to. He can take out long periods of time of just one person almost ranting to himself. It’s exhausting, and you never know when one character will suddenly burst into a 5 min talking and arguing with themselves, using very repetitive language. I imagine it’s a translation thing - probably feels more fluent in native russian, and also taken in account it’s a 150 year old book, but still; tough listen.
Was a good book, like almost all his works, and the narrator does a good job. Simon Vance generally is a great narrator, and I am happy I had him do the reading to me, as I feel he is one of the best narrators on audible.

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More religious treatise than a novel

This is an abridged version of the "great" Russian novel. However, even with a third cut-out I found the book slow-paced, convoluted and confusing. I dread to think what the full-length version is like. Large chunks of the book are devoted to religious discourse – the tag line for the book might be “if there is no God then anything is lawful”. The story line itself, such as it is, is uninteresting and perplexing and, finally, not very satisfying.

The pace improves, for a time, in the second half as one of the brothers descends into a kind of mania and there’s a suspicion of murder, but even that falters into convoluted nonsense and the mystery loses focus.

Overall, I cannot recommend this novel. Many people rank it as one of the greatest of all time: I just couldn’t wait to get through it. Parts of Crime and Punishment I enjoyed, and I will read that again but The Brothers Karamazov didn’t work for me at all. I apologise to those that love it. Different types of people like different things in novels, and it seems that I’m someone who doesn’t find enjoyment in the convoluted snail’s pace of Russian novels.

Simon Vance gives a spirited performance, doing his best with the meandering text. My not liking the book is not the fault of the narrator.

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Trial by Ordeal

Approached this with caution as my four previous experiences with Dostoevsky and his novels have been a mixed bag. 'Brothers Karamazov' loved by Freud and the Pope and favourite bedside reading for Stalin and Putin. No really!!
I can only imagine Fyodor was being chased by his bookie for gambling debts (he was paid by the word) as the reason for this massive tome.
This is a rambling long winded tale of murder, punishment and redemption with long endless tracts of religious dogma thrown in.
The story is littered with lots of pantomime characters particularly the father Karamazov and son Dimitri.
Most others are simply unpleasant self centered selfish individuals that I suspect would have benefited from a spell in the Gulag.
I know of only two people who have actually read and FINISHED this book both for academic reasons and not for pleasure.

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2 people found this helpful

Ugh!

I was expecting a novel about a family. What I got was a religious diatribe. I listened to around two hours worth, expecting things to improve. They didn't. I cannot recommend this to anyone other than a serial audio masochist.

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