invitation to a book club

In the tradition of this blog's phenomenally successful series on Harry Potter, next month we will launch a discussion of another genre-busting line of books, (albeit a line now almost always read as one continuous and enormous volume), the bloody and soulful Brothers Karamazov.

We invite all kibbitzers and readers to join us as we read and comment on Dostoevsky's "longest, richest, and most capacious book" (The Washington Post Book World). We'll even have a guest kibbitzer, and we hope you'll join the fun.

We will be reading it slowly, and we will be reading it (at least in part) as a mystery/crime novel: How does heavy D. measure up to Agatha Christie or Sir Arthur Doyle or Dennis Lehane or Raymond Chandler? Does the story still fascinate, or is it all just philosophical blah blah blah?

Expect our first posts in early August. In the meantime, pick up a copy of the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation.