I Actually Agree ...

 ... Dostoevsky is not for everyone and he is definitely not my favorite Russian writer. So one British dude contemplates ...

On the back of my copy of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 1869 novel The Idiot, there’s a quote from the English philosopher A.C. Grayling that tells you what to think of it. “One of the most excoriating, compelling and remarkable books ever written,” it reads, “and without question one of the greatest.” That “without question” bothered me. Why assume that every classic deserves its reputation? We should make up our own minds after having read one, as we do with any other book.  

That wasn’t the only reason why I treated Grayling’s claims with skepticism as I edged my way into this gargantuan novel (I can’t remember exactly when that was, but I know I was a much younger man at the time). Having kicked and dragged myself through the same author’s late “masterpiece” The Brothers Karamazov (1880) last year, I knew what I was in for. And now, having almost finished The Idiot, I can say with confidence that Dostoevsky is a dreadful writer. Dreadful.   

Obviously he didn't read Solzhenitsyn in original, Russian language, version--this is the rape of taste and mind 101, while there is a lot to be said about Nabokov. I would suggest Mark Nayler read Sholokhov's Quiet Flows the Don (that will blow his mind). But, I want to remind you about Sir Michael Caine (as the last vestige of an English culture, euphemism for England, we all used to love and admire--not anymore). 

And his story telling which is exemplary.