Title: The Idiot

Author: Fiodor Dostoyevski

Genre: Classic

Pages: 702

Reading together is an excellent idea and it was a great pleasure for my mom, to read one of her favorite books from her childhood together with me despite she was very busy, and she didn’t have much time. It gives her the opportunity to rediscover main protagonists again, now in a different light and from a different perspective, and to properly understand beauty of different characters, from naïve Prince Myshkin, unpredictable Nastasija Filipovna, horrifying Rogozin, beautiful Aglaya Ivanovna, to childish countess Japanchin.

This experience was very good for me as well, because I got to learn many new things about literature, but also about my mom. I found out that she is very much into Russian Literature, and I understand why. The Idiot is extremly interesting and amusing, with lots of unusual characters and an unexpected plot. At first I wasn't so enthusiastic about reading 700 pages, but once I started, it was very easy and simple to follow prince myshkin through the story. I found out that Dostoyevski had an interesting life himself, he also had epilepsy, he was a gambler and he uses his personal experiences in his writing. One of his other famous books are "The Gambler", “The Notes from the Underground”, “The Brothers Karamazov” and many others.

It was an opportunity for both of us to discuss some topics like love, jealousy, passion, greediness, beauty, purity of soul, strong character in new contexts. Every person has good and bad sides which prevail depending of circumstances that we live in, which heavily influence all human behavior. Dostoyevski shows deep understanding and compassion for all human weaknesses, that you almost feel sorry for all negative characters and instead of condemning them, you compassion with them. In conclusion, I believe that this was very good experience, because we were able to learn many different things about our parents, and also from the book.