The Brothers Karamazov

A longer quote than usual to start with.  It is the first book I have given a 5 Star rating to so surely it deserves to be quoted (and indeed it often been quoted).

"Can you understand why a little creature, who can't even understand what's done to her, should beat her little aching heart with her tiny fist in the dark and the cold, and weep her meek unresentful tears to dear, kind God to protect her? Do you understand that, friend and brother, you pious and humble novice?Do you understand why this infamy must be and is permitted? Without it, I am told, man could not have existed on earth, for he could not have known good and evil. Why should he know that diabolical good and evil when it costs so much? Why, the whole world of knowledge is not worth that child's prayer to dear, kind God'! 
...
It's not worth the tears of that one tortured child who beat itself on the breast with its little fist and prayed in its stinking outhouse, with its unexpiated tears to 'dear, kind God'! It's not worth it, because those tears are unatoned for. They must be atoned for, or there can be no harmony. But how? How are you going to atone for them? Is it possible? By their being avenged? But what do I care for avenging them? What do I care for a hell for oppressors? What good can hell do, since those children have already been tortured? And what becomes of harmony, if there is hell? I want to forgive. I want to embrace. I don't want more suffering. And if the sufferings of children go to swell the sum of sufferings which was necessary to pay for truth, then I protest that the truth is not worth such a price. 
...
Besides, too high a price is asked for harmony; it's beyond our means to pay so much to enter on it. And so I hasten to give back my entrance ticket, and if I am an honest man I am bound to give it back as soon as possible. And that I am doing. It's not God that I don't accept, Alyosha, only I most respectfully return him the ticket."

An amazing book!  I hardly know where to start or what to say about it.  It is so dense, rich and engaging that my comments inevitably seem superficial.  There are so many thought provoking ideas crammed into this novel.  

The book is like a series of philosophical essays interspersed in a fantastic story full of fascinating characters.  Sometimes when authors try this you end up with a clunky, preachy, over-wrought mess.  But Dostoevsky manages to balance the plot and the philosophizing so perfectly that it never feels bogged down.  

The quote above is from Ivan, grappling with the problem of evil.  This passage affected me deeply when I first read it about 8 years ago.  I was still in the grips of religious fundamentalism at the time but the needless suffering in the world was steadily eating away at my faith.  I was shaken to find how strongly I could empathize with Ivan's declaration: "I most respectfully return him the ticket"

It is such a shame that Dostoevsky did not live long enough to write the sequel he had planned.  I would love to know how he would have unfolded the further adventures of the brothers, but also of Katya, Grushenka, Lise, Kolya and others.

So, which brother am I most like?  Which brother are you most like?  Is there some Karamazov in all of us?