Doctor Zhivago by Doris Pasternak
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
I can understand why this book would have received the Nobel Prize (if Pasternak didn’t have to refuse it) due to it’s eye-opening history of Russia during the Russian Revolution and Civil War. In this, Boris Pasternak does an amazing job of depicting the cruelty and struggle citizens experienced during these years. Having multiple families deal with this difficult time in different ways showed how many people were effected and how terrible things became. Pasternak’s descriptions of landscapes and the dreary scenes just adds to the rough atmosphere of this novel.
However, the rest of this novel left me disappointed in many ways. First, this novel is described as “one of the greatest love stories ever told” which is not accurate at all. The romantic relationship this alludes to is only a focus for a very small portion of the book and was really just used by Pasternak to make certain points and move the story along. The second thing that bothered me is that this really seemed to be the case for all the characters that were introduced, so although character-centered, the book is not character-driven. At the end of the book I didn’t feel a connection with any of the characters, nor really have a good sense of any of their true personalities and opinions. They didn’t speak with each other but rather gave long speeches so Pasternak could get certain points across. Thus, it was often disjointed and interrupted the beautiful prose and imagery Pasternak used to describe landscapes or setting scenes.
Another issue I had with the book was the fact that these characters had so many coincidental run-ins with each other in so many different parts of Russia. It would be one thing if they all lived in the same town the entire novel, but they are constantly traveling and yet somehow they keep meeting each other. This seemed to be a convenient way for Pasternak to update us on the whereabouts of other characters but was unrealistic and distracting. Overall, not one of the classics I will be putting on my favorites shelf nor fully recommending to others.
Synopsis: Dr. Yury Zhivago, Pasternak's alter ego, is a poet, philosopher, and physician whose life is disrupted by the war and by his love for Lara, the wife of a revolutionary. His artistic nature makes him vulnerable to the brutality and harshness of the Bolsheviks. The poems he writes constitute some of the most beautiful writing featured in the novel.