BOOKS: The Brothers Karamazov

"Everything there was to know about life was in "The Brother's Karamazov." Well__that's according to Eliot Rosewater, a character in Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse Five. Is everything that you ever wanted to know about life in the Brother's Karamazov? Yes. Covered are good character, bad character, patricide, murder, hate, deceit, love, the search for God, the ultimate meaning of life and an examination of psychology and morality__an intellectual masterwork. A novel to get lost in; a place to enter into the world of the characters and their lives, where there is a struggle between good and evil, church and state. It is a fitting successor to Dostoevsky's other great novel, "Crime and Punishment." It's astounding how good are the Russian writers__Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov with his perfect short stories. These writers in the original language must be incomparable, however Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky's recent English translation of the "Brothers Karamazov " gives a true grasp of the original that is lively and extremely readable. "Brothers Karamazov" is a large sprawling novel that deals with serious theological and philosophical themes as well as much of the human character and societal problems faced today.