The Idiot

It was an effort to make it to the end of this book.

I enjoyed the first quarter, particularly Dostoyevsky describing (through Myshkin) the incident where he was being executed but it was called off at the very last minute, before the shots were fired. Hearing the details of what went through his head was super interesting. The retrospective on his time in exile in Siberia was great too.

I found the main story dull. Painful levels of detail. Not a lot of change in the environment to mix things up. Had to trudge through hoping it'd perk up again (it didn't until right at the end). Parts felt like reading a daytime soap opera. Nowhere near as enjoyable as The Brothers Karamazov. There were good parables in the last 3/4, but they were scattered amongst stacks of details.

Overall, a few awesome chapters, but the majority of the book was not my jam.