Fathers and Sons

Masterpiece, masterpiece, masterpiece.

I dove into Fathers & Sons after dabbling in some of Turgenev's other short stories. Wow.
It is interesting to read this book after Dostoevsky's “Demons”. Fathers & Sons is a more compelling, lucid and moving version of the former. With this, Turgenev has firmly won me over to his side in the Dostoevsky vs Turgenev brawl.
His depiction of the female cast is stunning in its understated soulfulness and accuracy, similar to Tolstoy's.

The danger of nihilism, the legitimate grievances that underlie the mindset of those who succumb to nihilism, and the unbearable inertia that underlies both the lifestyle that conforms to tradition versus the lifestyle that breaks away from its entirety - Fathers & Sons is a pitiful, inspiring train-wreck of the Russian psyche that you cannot tear yourself away from.