Saturday, September 28, 2013

2013 Books in Review #16: Anna Karenina


I read Anna Karenina as my first selection in the Classics Catch-Up Challenge in ebook format.
Anna Karenina is a classic piece of literature that covers many relational themes: marriage, adultery, friendship, courtship, love and loss. It follows Anna Karenina and her husband, her lover Vronsky, her children, and other family and friends. It is written from a 3rd person perspective, but it jumps around between scenes happening at roughly the same time between different characters.
I'd never read Anna Karenina before this and I probably wouldn't have picked it up this year except that it was on the reading list for the Classics Catch Up Challenge. I found myself immensely moved by the characters and their relationships, flawed and all. It felt very real to me, not glossed over or gussied up, but rather raw and honest. People making decisions that others don't agree with, making mistakes, falling in love rather than following social norms set out for them.
Now that I have read the book I think I'd like to watch some of the various movie interpretations and see how they match up. I enjoyed the book much more than I expected to and I am glad to have added it to my reading knowledge in my head. 
This was my 5th book of the year, my first classic book of the year, and the letter A in my A-Z challenge.

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