Dostoevsky's Russian chauvinism and antisemitism have long posed problems for his readers and critics. How could the author of "The Brothers Karamazov" also be the source of the slurs against Jews in "Diary of a Writer"? And where is the celebrated Christian humanist in the nationalist outbursts of "The Idiot"? These enigmas - the coexistence of humanism and hatred, faith and doubt - are linked, Susan McReynolds tells us, in "Redemption and the Merchant of God". Her book analyzes Dostoevsky's novels and Diary to show how the author's anxieties about Christianity can help solve the riddle of...