The thing about the ecclesiastical courts is interesting in light of later things (like the Grand Inquisitor and one of the book’s overriding questions, which is about whether justice is possible in this life or even in the afterlife) but it’s still a weird digression, I agree. There are certainly plenty of things that Dosotevsky does that any young, aspiring writer would be steered well clear of in a formal educational setting: huge paragraphs, telling not showing, using your characters as a mouthpiece for your own views, or else using them as paper dolls to play devil’s advocate. But somehow I still feel he makes it work.

It’s certainly a way of writing a novel that feels very outdated, but I kind of miss that in novels these days, I have to admit. I like how, in spite of being a murder mystery at its heart, BK is a book that’s ABOUT things.