Per Wikiepdia, Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is “commonly thought to explore the themes of hypocrisy, jealousy, faith, fidelity, family, marriage, society, progress, carnal desire and passion, and the agrarian connection to land in contrast to the lifestyles of the city.” Thanks for the help, Boys! (Their citation for that assertion is gradesaver.com—maybe we should just do our research there).
Anyhow, Anna Karenina is indisputably one of the great novels, but a lot of people bash their heads against it. It’s long, it’s about adultery on the one hand, and prosaic family life on the other, and it has many, many digressions into Russian land politics of the 1860s. It’s problematic for feminists because its heroine tries to live a progressive dream life, and it doesn’t quite work out. It’s problematic for Christians because its heroine tries to live a progressive dream life, and for a while it’s actually kind of dreamy in some ways, even if it doesn’t quite work out.
Fortunately, our heroes are on hand to sort it all out for you in this Russian-novel-length single shot of pure Bookening goodness. Nathan proves that he should never attempt a Russian accent, Jake remembers college ministry students who could have learned a thing or two from Kitty, Brandon ponders whether every happy family is alike, and if you listen closely you can probably hear some birds fly into the window of the house where our heroes find themselves recording.
We’ll get back to our regular schedule of 2-3 episodes a month starting in February. Happy New Year!
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