Anna Karenina

It could have been 20% shorter and it would have been perfect. That said, its a beautifully written book. If you're expecting much in terms of plot then it's pretty basic but you dont read an 800 page literary fiction book for just plot, do you? Apart from being a rumination on marriage, country life, society, existentialism, money problems- ya know all things life, its also an excellent portraiture of life in Russia in that era. It paints a vivid picture of the people and place and transports you to that culture at ease.

The last two parts are what it a masterpiece I think -

Reading about Anna's fights with Vronksy triggered my (non serious) PTSD of my parents inchorent power struggles turned to mind games. And as much as I've always been aware of it, I never read any book that did so much justice in exploring unhappy marriages as this book did but thats tmi, sorry.

I really enjoyed Levin's meditations in the last part quite a lot, especially about over analyzing or reasoning meaning of life vs. living that life with good intentions. It kind of reminded of Mann's Magic Moutain where he just skies around the same mountain in circle in futility and thats meant to be analogy for philosophizing life. But this book illustrates that so much better imo.