Three Sentences

Ariel was kind enough (is that the right adjective?) to hoist upon me the considerable responsibility of grabbing the nearest book at hand and dishing out a random choice morsel. I frown upon most memes, but the pathway to my heart in this matter has certainly been found. I find it hard to stay away from any chance to talk about my books.

Without further ado I give you my foray into a round of “Literary Lucky-Dipping:”

1) Skillfully grab the book closest to you.
I didn’t have to reach far; I have two copies of this book and they are both out at the moment (one battered paperback for the road, and one nice immaculate hardback for reading at home). In fact, you ought to expect more quotations here from this book as time goes by.

2) Quickly open to page 123, go down to the fourth sentence.
Such an arbitrary command, but it won’t hurt me to comply. I just hope some sort of absurd conspiracy is hinted at by the final combination of numbers alluded to in this meme.

3) Post the text of the following three sentences.

The great thing was that he had absolute confidence in his honesty. It happened once, when the old man was drunk, that he dropped in the yard three hundred-rouble notes. He only missed them the next day, and was just searching his pockets when he saw the notes lying on the table.

4) Name the author and book title.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (did you guess as much already?), The Brothers Karamazov.

If you’ve read this book you may have guessed everything; certainly “rouble” gave away the Russian origin. For added points try and name the character who is described as being so honest. I’ll give you a hint: he’s a sallow-faced scoundrel who passes himself as an epileptic. He also plays the guitar. Have you got it?

The Brothers Karamazov is perhaps the last great Russian novel I have yet to finish (scratch that if Pasternack counts). I love Russian literature and this book is superb. I will admit, however, that of the two greatest Russian prose masters (Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky) my favorite, with help from this book, has been clearly confirmed. Tolstoy unequivocally wins. Dostoyevsky gained an early start, for my first exposure to Russian lit was Crime and Punishment, from there I moved to Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, and then back to Dostoyevsky’s Idiot. Finally my horizons were broadened with help from Pushkin, Bulgakov, Turgenev and Solzhenitsyn. The thing is that Dostoyevsky’s insistence of salvation through suffering has limited power; the longer I am exposed to it the more frustrated I get at what I think is his failure to recognize the triumph of joy. On the other hand, Tolstoy’s Levin and Pierre are characters that epically resound with me, their ending is nearer the correct one.

5) Tag an indefinite number of people to do the same (so, it could be ’0′).
The prodigiously literate Andrew…