Finally finished 'The Brothers Karamazov' after 8 months of starting and stopping

Kept losing the thread of who was talking in those long speeches, but I pushed through the last 200 pages this weekend and now I'm just sitting here wondering how my book club is gonna handle that whole 'who really did it' debate... anyone else struggle to finish a classic like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_zara17d ago

Took me three tries and a whole lot of bookmark tabs to get through War and Peace. I lost track of who was marrying who and ended up keeping a little notebook with character names and their nicknames, because apparently Russians need four different names for everyone. The debate part is the best part though, you get to sound smart even if you barely remember the details.

wren_jackson17d ago

That notebook thing is the exact reason I quit halfway through the first time. Did you find yourself skipping the war chapters just to get back to the boring social drama, or did you actually force through all the battle descriptions? I always wonder if people who finish the book actually understand the historical references or just pretend to nod along when someone brings up Tolstoy's views on Napoleon. The nickname thing still messes with me, like calling someone by three different names in one paragraph feels like a trick question.