Rating: 
Summary: Dostoevsky's, well, masterpiece.
Review: Doestoevsky, the darkly brooding Russian writes a joyous (and sad) brilliant novel. He is, however, a terrible stylist, un-artistic to a fault. His ideas are profound, but so is Kant (which puts some, nay just about all, to sleep). On top of that, he is a mysogynist, an anti-semite, and a xenophobe. Nabokov wouldn't put him in a Russian anthology. I both loathe and enjoy Dostoevsky, but I can't recommend this novel to anyone. It gets five stars for philosophical content and negative two for artistically inept and prejudiced.
Rating: 
Summary: Delicious
Review: In Dostoyevsky the reader will find viewpoints into the essential questions of life. Like all the best things, you have to work for it, as these books are mammoths. Yet they do not meant to be gnawed through... The prose and plot are beautiful, and this, upon reading it the first time, is a book I know I'll come back to again and again. Most of the 400,000 books published each year are not worth carefully reading even once; many fewer than 1,000 each year are worth reading more than once. When, infrequently in any century, a great book does appear, it is a book worth reading again and again and again. It is inexhaustibly rereadable. It cannot be fully understood on one, two, or three readings. More is to be found on all subsequent readings. The Brothers Kamarazov is one of the world's greatest novels, much like other works by the great Russian masters, ie., Crime And Punishment, War And Peace, Dead Souls and Anna Karerina. I will not attempt to give an overview of the plot, since the reader deserves the opportunity to discover it themselves. Dostoyevsky was always pondering the existence of God, and this work provides a fascinating two-sided argument into it. This aspect alone makes it a worthwhile read for any individual looking to sort out the question of a higher spiritual being. Finally, if I may suggest, do not borrow this book from a library or a friend. It deserves a place on your shelf, since you will come back to it, or at least selected passages, again and again. Life is too short for most books. Put the effort into this masterpiece and be rewarded...
Rating:
Summary: Superlative
Review: Dostoyevsky has been called the greatest novelist ever. His countryman, Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, might have something to say about that but it is certainly not very far from the truth. "The Brothers Karamazov" is Dostoyevsky's greatest book. "The Grand Inquisitor" is quite simply the greatest single chapter of ANY book. It is hard to describe The Brothers K in so short a space. Very simply put, there is a depth of spiritual and psychological analysis in this book that is unparalleled. D. poured himself into this novel. Both his spiritual agonizings and philosophical intellectualizing are presented in this novel. There is very little point in summarizing the plot because that wouldn't really convey much. Please read To understand the depth of Dostoyevsky's genious, one only has to read it next to a more modern book. The modern book will almost surely seem weak and pale in comparison. I do not know of another book that is its equal.
I actually read this book in Omsk, the city in Siberia where D. was exiled, and on the Trans-Siberian railroad. It was an amazing experience. This novel will exhaust you emotionally and intellectually but it will also stretch you in a remarkable way.
Rating:
Summary: punch
Review: this is the type of book that can change a persons life. every character has absolute depth. the gravity of the story is inescapable, and the psychological mastery of the author come into full view within the context of the questions explored (theodicy, the existence of God, nihilism, etc.).
two characters in particular will always remain vivid within my imagination: father zosima and alyosha. ivan, the brilliant atheist who wants to believe in God so bad that it literally drives him insane, will always have my deepest sympathies. locating the meaning of life within the existential affirmation of faith in Christ, with the beauty of life and existence serving as the practical answer to lifes difficult questions, dostoyevsky confronts the existential dilemma of man head on, and gives an answer that even to this day few have surpassed.
highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Beauty/ Horrah for Karamazov!
Review: The reason we keep on living is to experience beauty. The Brothers Karamazov is perhaps the most beautiful novel I have ever read. Ok, no perhaps about it. This book transcends any and all borders of literature; it penetrates the deepest regions of your soul. When you read Koyla's final exclamation, "Horrah for Karamazov!" it suddenly all comes together in the most beautiful and emotional climax one can imagine. The Karamazov's represent mankind in its various aspects (its indulgence, its skepticism, and in Alyosha, the tiny spark of faith and love that can be found at its heart). "Horrah for Karamazov!" means "Horrah for mankind!" Through that small spark of love and hope from the humble Alyoshas of the world, all that's shallow and evil in our nature can be redeemed for and forgotten; mankind can be something to rejoice over. Horrah for Karamazov!
Rating:
Summary: brothers gonna work it out
Review: an extended tale of a russian family, a father and his 3 radically different sons. what follows is ultimately a murder mystery, but to put it like that really just demonstrates how great D is as a writer to take, in crude form, angela lansberry and make her into a beautiful multi-faceted portrayal of life and the characters who inhabit it, their humanity, their morality and their questioning of both. even if you think you're better than this book, you're not.
Rating:
Summary: Read it now! Don't wait for the movie to come out . . .
Review: Actually it already did- back in the 50's with Yul Brynner and Marie Schell passionately larger than life yet thoroughly believable in the leads, and a young starship commander (No, I'm not kidding!) in the role of the saintly Alyosha, but I digress. Never before or since has the theme of good and evil been so brilliantly handled in a work of fiction. Nor, for that matter, the madness of romantic love in all its pain and glory and the quest for redemption. As to the characters, one gets the feeling that Dostoevsky could have written a separate book on each. They not only, to use an overworked phrase-- 'come alive', they are so compelling that it takes an act of imagination NOT to believe they are real. What else can one say? This is the greatest novel I have read. This is Dostoevsky at his finest. I think that about sums it up
Rating:
Summary: Long but well worth the effort
Review: Russian novels are notoriously long. This one at 900 plus pages is long but well worth the effort. As with the other Dostoevsky novels the dominant theme is religion. Here Dostoevsky says that you cannot subject the existence of God to intellectual scrutiny rather you must have faith to accept God. As the character Ivan Kamarazov so eloquently argues, logic would indicate there is no God and no Heaven. So if there is no immortality then nothing is immoral. "Everything is permissible" as other reviewers have noted. Advocating the opposite position is the Greek Orthodox monk Father Zosima whose legendary faith attracts a horde of admirers including Aloshya Kamarazov. The Devil himself, who of course believes in God, says "Besides in matters of faith, proof, especially ,material proof is pretty useless." One striking feature of this novel is how the different characters here evolve as distinct personalities under Dostoevksy?s stewardship. After hundreds of pages of prose we can clearly recognize that the brothers Ivan, Aloshya, and Dmitry are quite different from one other and not just two-dimensional, cartoon like, parodies of themselves The literary critic Harold Bloom says that Shakespeare invented personality in it's written form you can see what he means when you read Dostoevsky implement this skill. This novel is steeped in psychology and theology and argues against the European enlightenment encroaching upon Mother Russia. Yet it is not all erudite, high-brow scholarly stuff. In his running commentary on the novel itself, Dostoevsky clearly says he intends his book to be entertainment. So these themes are woven into a captivating detective story which as everyone knows is who committed parricide. One tip: don't look at the table of contents because it tends to give away the plot. Final comment: it is amazing that this novel is almost all dialogue or Dostoevsky probing the thoughts of the characters. There is almost no description of the setting or explanation of events that have transpired. Rather these events unfold right in front of us and we are privy to all their nuances.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best
Review: This book may seem daunting to some young readers, but I would recommend it to anyone with a real thirst for great stories. Easily one of the top five books I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: What lurks within the hearts of men
Review: If Charles Dickens's novels are a romanticization of Victorian England, then Dostoevsky's must be a realization of 19th Century Russia. "The Brothers Karamazov" not only sheds light on Czarist Russian life, society, and religion, but also succeeds in completely captivating the reader with its vivid characterization and dynamic plotting. Like Dostoevsky's other novels, it is a study in man's motivations for good and evil, his potential for corruption, and his glory in salvation. Each character, scene, and event in the novel seems to relay a principle that religion provides the structure for society, for better or worse. The novel chronicles the fragmented Karamazov family, who live in a small Russian town. The father, Fyodor, is a hedonistic, boorish landowner, twice a widower, who has his eye on a young lady named Grushenka. He has four sons: The oldest is Dmitri, an ex-military officer, a passionate, desperate, violent young man who is like his father in many ways; for one thing, he also is madly in love with Grushenka. There is Dmitri's half-brother Ivan, intellectual and studious, but morbid and cynical, and whose motto is "everything is lawful." There is Ivan's gentle, magnanimous brother Alyosha who is an initiate monk and whom Ivan likes to provoke with his iconoclastic discourse. Finally, there is the illegitimate Smerdyakov, a morose and cruel young man who works as Fyodor's cook. None of the brothers has a particularly loving relationship with their father or with each other. Each brother has a personal devil and an angel. Dmitri's devil is Grushenka; his angel is a young lady named Katerina to whom he is engaged, both connubially and financially. Alyosha's devil is a divinity student named Rakitin, who exploits the misfortunes of the Karamazovs; his angel is his mentor, Father Zossima, who represents religious solace. Ivan's angel is his brother Alyosha; his devil is his own conscience, with whom he converses in one unforgettable chapter. Smerdyakov's devil and angel are the same person: his father, the only person who has ever entrusted him. It is interesting to observe how each brother's devil and angel influence his actions and thoughts and provide conflict throughout the novel. One night, Fyodor is murdered, and Dmitri, who has the most urgent motive, is accused of the crime. This could be considered the central event of the novel, but it is not the event on which the novel's profundity rests. What is profound is the series of psychological mind games that the brothers play with each other both before and after the murder; they could be any trashy family on a modern TV talk show, but they have Shakespearean complexity and depth in the way they express their anguish and weave their webs of deceit. The novel ends with a seemingly positive notion about death and the joy in the remnants of life; in the very last scene, the stirring speech that Alyosha delivers after a young friend's funeral could have been Dostoevsky's own requiem. This is a staunchly uncompromising novel, refusing to provide any easy answers and forcing the reader to look inside his own heart for the source of good and evil.
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