I love that book! It was my first Russian, so I understand the difficulty with both the number of characters and each character having a plethora of different names. It’s in my re-read list, and I rarely re-read anything. For me, the tangents embedded in the book made it almost fairy tale like, and I vibe with the slow pacing. The middle section about the convent (I don’t remember the details much) added a lot in the fluidity of the world.