Still on Dostoevsky: While I like his works, his characters seem to act very... extremely. But maybe "extremely" isn't quite the word. They have strange motivations and don't seem to act very normal. They're very dramatic, so to speak. And they do other strange things as well. Just focusing on The Brothers Karamazov, we have people relying way too much on Alyosha, freaking out over such small things as someone not kissing their hand (granted, Grushenka *was* pulling somewhat of a backstab move, but Katerina's reactions seemed to be very exaggerated, especially since she goes all hysterical (according to Khokhalov, anyway) after that), and Fyodor Karamazov acting like he does (and sure, that was intentional since he's supposed to be very unlikeable, but who really does that?). Eh. Those are just things that get on my nerves a bit. I like the book, but everyone just seems so irrational. Unless I'm missing something, of course.
(These names are from the Andrew MacAndrew translation by the way. I went cheap and bought that one instead of the Pevear/Volokhonsky one, which is supposedly better, but i managed just fine I think.)
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