Review: Anna Karenina 3/5

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It took me a long time to get through this book, because at times I found myself actively avoiding reading it. I like the characters but disliked that I felt like I was reading three books at the same time. I didn't have a problem switching tracks between the stories, but it seemed like I got bored with the length and detail of a story for a while, then it would become interesting again but the track would switch into the other story.

I thought the characters had great depth and were made interesting, though in Levin there seemed some parts written just to be "throw away" scenes. I really liked his connection to the workers and the land, and I could understand that putting put aside as it was, but just (poof) in one sentence was jarring. Still, I think Levin's story was my favorite.

I liked it. I did. But it was difficult to get through and there were more than a couple places where I had to reread because I found myself mentally drifting off.

Image from Wikipedia

On a side note, I watched the 2012 Anna Karenina movie right after I finished the book (I'd been holding out so I could do so). Though I loved the way it was presented, the stage of life for Russian Aristocracy in particular, and felt they did a pretty good job in capturing Anna's story (a little short on her mental state near the end). However, I was a little disappointed at how much they left out of the stories of the others! HA! Honestly I think that if I hadn't read the book first that I wouldn't have understood what was going on in the movie as well as I did. I think some important parts were clipped for time, but overall the story and some actions lost relevancy. Still. I enjoyed it too.

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