16% done with The Brothers Karamazov

I like that Dostoyevsky created Smerdyakov because he’s the sort of character who is smart enough to go toe-to-toe with someone whose beliefs are opposite but just as strong. He’s clever and he reminds me of people I have known in real life.

This is quite the family Dostoyevsky is creating here and it’s unlike most other Russian novels where everyone feels like they’ve had a bath recently – everyone here is soiled