The sheep's tears will be revisited upon the wolf.

I like that, in The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky returns to his whimsical roots which are on full display in this book written a full 34/35 years later. The fourth-wall breaking asides with the reader where the narrator talks about the story, or refers to characters transparently as the hero or the protagonist. I think it's a bit overdone in this book.

Additionally, though the protagonist is not supposed to be likable per se (in fact, he's supposed to be a huge beta, which he is) he does not fall to the status of "trash." His dialogue is hugely annoying though, he stutters, mumbles, addresses people by both of their first names compulsively – guy has never used a pronoun in his life, and with the long Russian names, it just sounds so servile and scraping, I can't help but root for Goliadkin Jr. (the titular double).

In one passage in the 12 chapter, Goliadkin Sr. is defending/complaining about the slander against him levied by Jr.

This is the German woman's work. It's from her, the witch, that all this comes, she set the whole forest on fire. Because they're slandering a man, because they've invented some old wives' tale about him, some cock-and-bull story, ...

And though, as mentioned in the critical forward, Dostoevsky was known for his ability to seamlessly interweave the grapplings of the contemporary with the human condition, this novel falls flat because of the contrived plot device and frankly unsympathetic main character.

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