I’m curious what draws other people to Russian literature. Is it different from other literary traditions for you? Was there a particular book that got you hooked?

The rest of this post is just my rambling thoughts about it - I don’t have anyone in my real life who reads Russian literature and so I’m hoping to pick your brains!

Growing up, even though I was an advanced reader, by the time high school collided with my unmediated ADHD I was firmly in “regular” classes. So I didn’t really get exposed to a lot of classic or advanced literature in a formal setting.

When I was younger, Russia itself was a hyperfixation (or rather my idea of Russia) particularly their political landscape. Eventually my curiosity led me to pick up Anna Karenina and I completely fell in love with Tolstoy’s writing.

I don’t have all of the Russian lit I have read on Pagebound since I can’t remember when I read them and I want to re-read them anyway, but I feel like I have barely scratched the surface so maybe that’s why I can’t put my finger on why I’m so drawn to it? I don’t think it would be fair to say Russian lit is “deeper” than other literary traditions by any means, but I love how these authors aren’t scared of digging into the big philosophical questions or the darker, more complicated parts of human nature.

I will say that I love with every Russian work I’ve read so far I never have to question “Is it really that deep?” Instead, I’m always wondering “How much deeper does this go that I haven’t seen yet?” And I love that feeling.

I’ll stop rambling, but that’s the reasoning behind my question. Pariticularly for those of you who read a lot of Russian literature - why do you love it? (And if your answer is is simply it’s fun to flex your Russian lit knowledge on others that is 100% valid!!)

This audiobook is so lovely!! The narration is stellar. Also one of the top reviews on good reads describes this book as "incomprehensible" but I feel like everything, while mystical, is pretty clear. Though it is also a one star, so maybe they just don't get it🤷🏼‍♂️🤷🏼‍♂️ but I'm loving it so far!

I'm reading the original, unabridged and unedited version of this book and it's truly....something. I forgot how prevalently Kafka uses nested sentences (or "Schachtelsätze"/"Treppensätze", how they're called in German) and how long they tend to get. And maybe it's because he never revisited this story (as far as I remember, he never really finished 'The Trial' and didn't plan on publishing it; even asking his friend to destroy the manuscript after his (Kafka's) death), but in this book, they feel even longer and tangled.

While it makes the story definitely hard to read, it does feel quite fitting to me: These "Bandwurmsätze" (direct translation would be 'tapeworm sentences', which basically means a way too long sentence) makes the spiraling thoughts of Josef K. very tangible to me. I feel very stressed and uneasy while reading -- trying to finish sentences that just keep going and desperately trying to make sense of them.

Which version do you guys read? Does it feel like you're maybe "out of breath" after a particularly long paragraph? And how do you like the writing style?