Anna Karenina

Phew... At last! After spending almost everyday reading Anna Karenina for the last one month plus, finally I turned the last page yesterday. This Leo Tolstoy's novel... oh, what a joy I had in reading it, such a truly great work of art from the Russian writer.

I came to know this novel and its author since my early age, that was almost the same time when I knew about Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and yet I couldn't be bothered to read it, what a shame! If only I'd known then the beauty and insight I could get... Well, thanks to The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks that really "sparked" my curiousity, because I love The Last Song *made me cry * and I wanted to know what was in Anna Karenina that made Nicholas Sparks put it in the book. That and also the thickness of the novel haha. I love reading great and thick novel and Anna Karenina has more than 800 pages.

It was a bit daunting at first, didn't know what to expect and actually prepared myself to some disappointment along the way, you know the things with really really absurdly good author from ancient time such as Charles Dickens and Shakespeare, they were arranging the words in a way that makes you scratching your head in an attempt to find the meaning. Well, not in Tolstoy's case. Don't get me wrong, mind you, I had to reread the sentences a couple of time to get them right, especially when the characters start the discussion about Russian politic and agriculture, but to my own amazement, I didn't feel bored at all and kept turning those pages!

So the story is about a tragic love story between a so-called brave and rebellious Anna and Vronsky. In their time, everything was about the society, if you go against them, you are like an outcast and it is humiliating to the point of depression. And what Anna did was against society, to openly leave her husband and lived with Vronsky without any marriage status. But sadly, in the end she gave in to her jealousy and despair and commited suicide.

Together with Anna, there is one more central character, Levin, he is the very opposite of Anna. And Tolstoy I think, often channeled his own ideas and view of Russian society and politic through him. I like this Levin character from the start because I think he is honest and open and say whatever he feels without much consideration of what people might think of him later on or might even ridicule him. I say it's pretty cool, like not going with the flow if that's not what we really are.

Anna dared to oppose the society just like Levin, but in the end she lost to herself. Levin, on the other hand, through events of his life, he managed to find the true meaning of why he lived, which was to live righteously in the eye of God and men.

My number one book that shifted Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns to number two