Review:

The Brothers Karamozov, by Fyodor Dostoesvsky

As it turns out, this is a fun book. It has many of the features of an epic fantasy, except, of course, for the fantastic and epic elements. There's the same sense of world-saving importance, the same philosophical digressions on good and evil, the same psychological themes turned into seeming reality, the same ironies, the same page-spanning dialogue...

I liked the book. I've been reading some of the classics lately, to stretch out the brain, and this is one of my favorites. It's the same kind of pleasure as watching Dallas, or seeing a soap opera. There are very few characters you'd want to meet, per se, but you love to watch them nonetheless. Maybe I should write something deeper about the other aspects of the book, but the fact is that sometimes a classic is just a classic because people have enjoyed reading it for a long time, not because the book says something important or the style is innovative. Like Jane Austin. I like her, too.