"Fyodor Dostoevsky", A Christian Encounters book by Peter Leithart

I must say that I knew very little about Dostoevsky the man - and after reading this biography, maybe that was a good thing. His books are powerful, acclaimed as classics (and rightly so). His influence on Russian culture and literature is undeniable. His life, however, was less admirable than his work.
Dostoevsky was a Christian, at least in one sense. He affirmed that Christ should be the center of life for all men, but I am not sure how Biblical his Christology actually was - and the book doesn't really address that. It does state that Dostoevsky was apparently a part of the Orthodox church, so we can make a few deductions based on that information.
Plagued with bad health for much of his life, Dostoevsky had some vices which were suprising to me for some reason: gambling, drinking, anger, and women. He had at least one very obvious mistress while his first wife was dying. But if there were one, there could also be others not so obvious. He wasted much of the little money he had on gambling. And he was quick to have fits of anger and shouting when conversing.
My review, however, is not about Dostoevsky's life - but about this book. And I must say that the book had some vices as well. To begin with, there were at least four curse words used in the book. This was totally unnecessary. And, I might add, it was offensive to the (supposed) target audience of Christian readers. There was also a scene that was far too sensual in nature - and it, also, was unnecessary. That scene added absolutely nothing to my understanding of Dostoevsky's life. The last negative point I will make about the book was the lack of continuity. The book darts back and forth between different times in Dostoevsky's life, and it was not easy to remember which time frame fit where.
Now for the positive notes. I really appreciated the book being written as an almost fictionalization of Dostoevsky's life. It made it much more interesting than the mere recitation of facts and dates. It also must have been very difficult to write an accurate biography in this way, so my respect goes to Mr. Leithart for his effort. He accomplished this task by basing many of the conversations in the book on actual writings of the people involved in the dialogue, and he footnotes them well.
Because of the "fictionalized" nature of the book, it was difficult to know which parts were absolutely true and which were made up. However, the book did spark my interest in the life of Dostoevsky, and I will read his writings with a new appreciation for the man behind them.
In all, I will give this book  3 out of 5 stars.
I received this book free from the publishers in exchange for my honest review.