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

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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