It is hard to say why but I get on runs where I read my favorite writers’ works over and over. 2024 has been filled so far with some of my enduring favorites. I reread Notes from the Underground and Crime and Punishment again this year, but now I’m about 200 pages into The Brothers Karamazov again.

Just when I thought I knew what there was to know about it, upon this rereading, I keep discovering brilliance at each turn–the seeds of discernment Dostoyevsky plants early on in the book about Alyosha and the trajectory Ivan’s going to take, and of Dmitri’s dangers, and of the father’s toxicity, and of the damage a toxic weak father wreaks.

The novel consistently ranks among the most important and best works of literature, and upon this rereading, I could not agree more.

A few years ago, I got on a kick where I read a bunch of biographies of Dostoyevsky. I would very much like to pursue further studies in that area, but that aside, what I continue to find in his work is that he saw to the heart of the issues regarding Christ or chaos, truth or the lie, God or Satan.

If you will do the work (Dostoyevsky’s literary world is admittedly heavy and lengthy), the rewards are so worthwhile. Tolle lege.