Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

In Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy has laid bare the intricacies of human behavior, the shortcomings and the delights of human nature. The perfection with which the lives of all the characters, the individuality and the intertwining, has been captured is amazing. It leaves you bewildered to read on how well the same person can place oneself in shoes of all his characters, and switch perspectives like turning a page, literally.

He has successfully carved out extremely humane characters, knitting their perspectives and lives with distinct and expert intricacy. One gets to sail through the story through all the characters involved, feel their emotions as vividly; living so many characters, feeling their feelings, hatred and confusion, one is led through a transformative journey. With all characters as an anchor, sequentially and alternatively, this journey is vivid, real and relatable. Being able to delve in to the mind of so many characters in the same story is enchanting at a different level, helping the reader dive deeper in every relationship and emotion.

The thread that binds these numerous characters together, as humans in coexistence, is there hunger for love; the hunger for the perception of being the love of another human being and being in love with another human being. Through glimpses of  life of all the characters, the necessity and the regard a being has, for the idea and the ecstasy that love is, is highlighted. One comes across how our basest existence feels incomplete without this essential spice. It goes on to indicate the change brought on to one’s perception and thinking, once one considers to have stumbled across love, fluttering their wings, trying their best to keep it; and how then the mere idea of being in love changes their entire perception and way of being. 

Another central theme to the book is the innate human desire to find order and logic in the inexplicable; how then this makes the case for the longevity and omnipresence of the concept for religion. Throughout, the flaws of being a human are highlighted vividly. The fragility of human emotions, how in a helplessness to make sense of another person’s circumstances and emotions, one tends to create their own web of understanding, trying to reason their own feelings and reactions to a particular situation, never pausing to take account of the events from the other person’s perspective and never entertaining the idea that one could be at fault and the reason behind their own misery, their own state of being.

The reader witnesses the leniency of a person for one self and the different reaction for others in a similar situation; how easily one holds different criteria for oneself and for others. Through the entire read, conversations and the perceptions involved in any discussion or argument are highlighted well; it is indeed interesting to observe and listen to an argument or a discussion from the mind of the speaker and the listener. Interestingly, it forces one to hold on to the idea that opinions and beliefs are supposed right by the owner without an ounce of doubt or hesitation. One’s position in society (power wise or affluence wise), only reinstates this false security, making them more prone to the rigidity of beliefs, not leaving a shred of chance for anyone to chisel at the foundation of these. 

The reader is brought face to face, to society’s bias in accepting a man and a woman, guilty of going against the same rules; how quick the society is in forgiving and forgetting when a man disrupts the social norms and does the unspeakable; how the life of a woman transitions when she breaks from these social norms and is then defined by and limited to this disruption that she created, making it a part of her character.

The book has a side effect of introducing one to the fact that everyone around lives in their own bubble; every action, every happening, every event is interpreted differently by every being witnessing it in anyway. Everyone uses the limited facts and information known to them to breakdown and make sense of everything else, including us. What an interesting shit show life is then!

One thing is guaranteed, the book is bound to have a major effect on how one looks at life and things around them. The book covers a great deal about all the characters in the story, but at the end it perfectly resonates with its title. Reflecting into the character and the personality of our protagonist, Anna Karenina, it hypnotizes the reader with this character and leaves one wanting to meet her in real life. Delving into her character through the eyes of other characters only aggravates this urge. To add to this marvelous portrayal, one moves on to see her as a victim of her own greatness. After all, power is a double edged sword!

All in all, a life transforming read, beautifully captured with words and woven together with seamless ease. Hats off to the writing and the story telling, indeed a masterpiece by Leo Tolstoy.