Babalar ve Oğullar

Thoughts

The book shows how nihilism fails to liberate and instead corrodes a person when their underlying humanness inevitably resurfaces.

After reading, I’m still left wondering: if someone sees no purpose in life, can they still choose to live and even feel happy? People often challenge nihilists with “Why not just end it?” But suicide is an active decision, not a default. A person who lacks meaning yet still enjoys the simple flow of days can keep going almost passively, letting life happen. Continuing to live != discovering meaning, in my opinion, and pleasure can survive without purpose.

I was preparing myself for another sprawling Russian epic packed with digressions, but this novel is lean. Just long enough to say what it needs to say. Like it.