Look Beneath the Bravado When Guiding Young Men

Every time I read Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, I walk away with fresh insight into the human heart and new applications for contemporary challenges. This year, reading through Michael Katz’s new translation, I was struck by Kolya Krasotkin—a 13-year-old on the precipice of manhood whose past history and present insecurities result in outward bravado.Kolya is a minor character in Dostoevsky’s towering work of Christian moral vision. It’s easy to focus only on the Karamazov brothers