Doctor Zhivago

Rating:
Summary: Definitive Work of 20th Century Russian Fiction
Review: As far as Russian literature in this last century goes, this is the best work I have seen. Doctor Zhivago does for the Communist Revolution what War and Peace did for Napoleon's invasion. There can be many comparisons made between the two books. Zhivago's story starts with the suicide of his father, who squandered the family fortune, and moves on from there to the revolution. No punches are pulled here: we see many shockinge effects of that event. Zhivago and his family leave Moscow to avoid the bloodshed and needless deaths, but he heads to more of the same, eventually becoming conscripted into the Red Army against his will to help with medicine. There is also Lara, Zhivago's love, who brings Zhivago to carry on. The decision to release this book was a gutsy one by Pasternak, but it paid off. This is the definitive epic of Soviet literature, and it comes highly recommended by me.

Rating:
Summary: Zhivago is life and art
Review: Before anyone should decide whether or not Doctor Zhivago is a good book, they must look into themselves and see what it is they are about, what they love, and what affects them. As with any book, there are going to be those who feel that Zhivago is horrible because famous and illustrious novelists (like Mr. Nabokov) did not agree with the approach Pasternak took to writing his novel (but Nabokov also criticized Dostoevsky's books for quite the same reasons, so does this mean that Crime and Punishment and The Idiot and Karamazov are not artistic novels?). Before anyone decides to defer to Nabokov's opinion, he should realize why Nabokov said those things. Reading a Nabokovian book is so much different from Doctor Zhivago. Nabokov's novels are well planned out, with biblical, Shakespearean, and Poe-etical imagery aplenty. His language in general, in every novel, short story, and poem, is spectacular and to be worshipped. His themes dealt with extraordinary events in common life. Nabokov is an artist in the sense of a Renaissance painter.

But Pasternak is not that way, almost quite the opposite. He set out to write a great novel, and I suppose he has done so in many circles of readers. And of those, I am sure that many think the book is great because of the epic events (the revolution), the epic characteristics (the journey), and the eternal themes (love and war, death and separation). But what great book by Tolstoy doesn't have those? What I see with Doctor Zhivago is the way Pasternak treats everyday, common place events. This is the best book, the only book, I have read to take normal events, ones which I see myself going through everyday, and put them into words that are poetic, flowing, and so representative of the truth. The characters may not rival those of Dickens, or the plot may have loopholes and deadends which scream at you HORRIBLE, but those are not the only, or even the most important, characteristics of a novel which defines its greatness.

For this book to be considered art, it shouldn't be looked at with a mathematician's eye, quantifying how many cardboard characters there are, how often Pasternak expounds his own philosophy in similar ways with different characters, or how many times a chapter pops up which is totally different in style and format to the rest of the book and detracts from the novel's flow. Art is not an additive process, but something that occurs inside of the reader, viewer, or listener. And for a book in the last half of the 20th century to create that makes it special, and something to be respected. At least for me. This book has done more inside of me than any other. Not because of its flimsy characters or loose plot arrangement, but because of how it describes life with the poet's simplicity, and creates art from such a simple life.

Rating:
Summary: An amazing work of imagery hidden in a simple story
Review: Doctor Zhivago is a work of greatness. It paints a picture so vivid, so real, that you can't help but see it. Boris Pasternak's greatest work, Zhivago won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958. That he was forced by the Soviet Government to not accept that prize is just another testament to his writing. His life was filled with censure from the government, and he was looked down upon by his people. Doctor Zhivago was rejected by Soviet publishers as counter-revolutionary, and was subsequently smuggled out to Italy where it was originally published in the Russian language. It was not published in Russia until 1988.

All this controversy could not have been generated by a lesser book. Pasternak's style of writing is one to provoke thought: rather than social issues running his characters, it was rather love, faith and destiny that did so. Social issues were considered by Pasternak to be important only in so far as they influence individual human destiny. This style can only be successful with the inclusion of powerful metaphors and intellectual conversations and thoughts; the author does all this and more.

Doctor Zhivago takes place in Russia during the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the civil war that followed. This is a time of extreme poverty, and Dr. Yury Andreyevich Zhivago decides to move him and his family out of Moscow and into the country. It also follows the life of Larissa Fyodorovna Guishar (subsequently Antipova), another Moscow native who also finds herself in the country, away from the disease and destitution. The book covers the many chance (or destined) encounters these two characters have had over the years: a party in Moscow, serving together at the front (he as a doctor and she as a nurse) as well as meeting again in the small town of Yuryatin. Yury was an intelligent man. He was of course a doctor, and he was a writer as well (over 30 pages of poems written by him are included in this novel). He is a man of intense feeling, he sees things like we all would like to be able to see. He is highly philosophical, constantly pursuing the meaning of life (much, I suspect, like Pasternak himself). Lara, who becomes his mistress, does not see everything like he does. He loves her for that, and jumps at the chance to be able to recite poetry to her, to educate her in his version of life. But Lara is not stupid. She understands what the revolution means: "Everything established, settled, everything to do with home and order and the common round, has crumbled into dust and been swept away in the general upheaval and reorganization of the whole of society. The whole human way of life has been destroyed and ruined." Yury and Lara try to shelter themselves from the turmoil going on around them in the civil war that followed the revolution. Yet through all this Yury still sees the beauty of life, the reasons for trying to hold on to a single moment, and to try and make this last. Doctor Zhivago is a great story. I love the feelings it portrays, the pictures it paints. Even being translated from Russian seems not to have hurt the artistry. The only weakness in the translation is that the poems at the end of the book are very choppy, and do not resemble poetry that much at all. Yet after reading the novel, I could feel nothing but gratitude to the translators, for making this masterpiece available to the English-speaking world. The novel leaves you with a feeling of sadness. Sadness not just for the characters, but also because Pasternak's life was much like Zhivago's. Forced to live in a place where his views were no longer accepted, Zhivago tries to remain pure, a symbol of artistic incorruptibility. Pasternak did the same, living out his days in an artist colony in disgrace. Pasternak summed up his life with a poem he wrote in 1959 entitled "Nobel Prize", wherein he said: "Am I a gangster or a murderer? Of what crime do I stand Condemned? I made the whole world weep At the beauty of my land." If you are trying to understand Soviet mentality, you should read this book. If you are trying to discover meaning for your life, read this book. If you are looking to read one of the greatest novels of this century, one that will leave you awestruck with it's imagery and enlightened by it's philosophy, then by all means read Doctor Zhivago.

Rating:
Summary: Commendable and admirable but ultimately flawed effort
Review: I've been a fan of Pasternak the poet and human being for a long time. His poetry is beautiful, reflecting his deep love of nature and his native land, and I've always found it moving how in 1947 he befriended the then-fourteen-year-old poet Andrey Voznesenskiy after he sent him some of his poetry, mentoring him and treating him like his equal instead of a stupid kid who worshipped the ground he walked on. It's a shame I can't be as big an admirer of Pasternak as a novelist, though this book is a very commendable and admirable effort, and certainly isn't badly-written. The descriptions of nature, for example, are quite beautiful, and it's clear that he loved his native land and was devastated by what befell it following the Revolution.

Pasternak was, first and foremost, a very talented and gifted poet, but it's painfully obvious that he didn't have an equal talent for prose. Maybe if he had written other novels his ability in that genre might have improved, but it remains quite obviously a first and only novel. Some of the metaphors, similes, and descriptions he uses are lovely, reflecting his talent as a poet, but some just sound and look laughable and embarrassing when in the form of prose. Some other mistakes are the ones other reviewers have also pointed out-way too much background information on minor characters, no real development of the supposed love story between Yuriy and Lara, let alone on why they got together, no closure of anything at the end, a mostly dead-end and pointless Epilogue and Conclusion (where interesting events begin to be developed but then peter off into nothingness since it's so close to the end there's no time to see them through to their conclusions), characters who disappear for hundreds of pages, too much telling and not enough showing, and way too many coincidences. It's embarrassing how many times Yuriy or someone else bumps back into someone whom we last saw hundreds of pages ago, a truly minor character in most cases, and that chance meeting years later contributes nothing to the plotline.

When they finally get together properly, Yuriy spends more time writing poetry after Lara has fallen asleep than in bed with her, this woman he keeps running into for longer and more significant periods of time, whom he realised he was in love with right before he was kidnapped by the partisans who needed a doctor. I get absolutely no sense whatsoever of why these two fall in love, no sense of why they get together, no sense of them being in love period when they're finally a couple. Why do so many writers insist on having the characters fall into one another's arms with barely a word of explaining their feeling or motivations? There are no love scenes, sex scenes, sweet nothings, nothing that would clearly show them as being a couple madly in love and fated to have gotten together years after having first met.

The book should have properly ended at the end of Chapter 15, sparing us the pointless Epilogue and Conclusion. Then I wouldn't have felt like "That's it?" at the real end of the book. We don't even find out what happens to Lara's daughter Katya, and for a man who was heartbroken while watching Lara and Katya's sleigh pass his field of vision twice in the night, knowing he'd never see them again, he sure doesn't act like it once he goes home. He doesn't go after his family in Paris, he doesn't try to find Lara, he enters a relationship with his childhood friend Marina! What is that all about?

The best part of the book is when Yuriy, Lara, and their friends are all growing up, showing the two different worlds they came from, how Russia was before the Revolution. I still admire Pasternak both as a writer and a human being, but this book remains a nice story that could have been so much more realistic and convincing had it been written by someone with more experience at writing prose.

Rating:
Summary: Difficult, but a worthy read
Review: The events of the novel revolve around a doctor and poet by the name of Yurii Andreievich Zhivago whom we first meet at a crucial point in his life. From the day of his mother's funeral to the day of his own, we follow Zhivago on his travels throughout Russia. He travels to the warfront, flees to Siberia, and is drafted into the Red Army before making his way back to Moscow. Over the course of these two decades, Zhivago repeatedly encounters a beautiful woman who essence fills his thoughts and heart. He is loyal to his wife Tonia and his little son Sasha, but he cannot help falling in love with the lovely Larisa Feodorovna Antipov, who is also already married to a famous war general. It is these chance encounters that allow the plot to progress and lead to their eventual love affair.

Even with such a complex plot, "Doctor Zhivago" remains a primarily character-based novel, as can be seen from the vast number of names and people we become familiar with throughout the story. Even the minor characters become dear to us, once we have figured out who they actually are and how they are connected to the main story. It is a challenging process to sort through the long list of characters, who may have any number of pseudonyms or nicknames along with their original Russian forenames. It is rewarding to recognize that Pavel Pavlovich, Pasha, Antipov, and Strelnikov are, in fact, the same person. We are also given several glimpses into the views and opinions of minor characters. Each person we meet along the way has a detailed history and a certain point of view to establish. Even if a character is only remotely connected to the main plot, Pasternak educates us on his family history and his role in the revolution.

The detail the author includes in the story extends to the scenery and land of Russia itself. With lengthy and occasionally tedious descriptions, Pasternak implores us to imagine the rough and beautiful wilderness of his home land and notes the striking contrast of the destruction caused by the war. He adds to his descriptions by making religious and philosophical allusions. These views alone are interesting but in the context of a greater story that should be told without interruption, they often slow down the more stirring moments in the plot. Some of these images, however, do create a startling picture of the devastation that swept Russia, such as the scenery at the warfront and during the uprising. Others, though educational, disrupt the plot to a greater extent.

With the combination of all these elements, "Doctor Zhivago" tells a compelling story while simultaneously describing the events of the early 1900's that shaped history. But unfortunately, I did not gain as much from reading this novel as many reviewers have expressed. I enjoyed the moments when the plot neatly coincided with Pasternak's poetic descriptions of the countryside or his unnerving depictions of the revolution, but these were too sparse throughout the novel for it to be engaging. The main plot was interrupted too often by philosophic commentary from either the author or one of the characters. It often took a great effort to get through monotonous passages and descriptions that did not contribute effectively to the plot or scenery of the novel. Many have expressed their frustration at the number of long, complex names Pasternak uses to refer to each of his characters, and I would agree that this they are difficult to keep straight. But once I finally understood the names, it was rewarding to get to know the minor characters and learn of their experiences during the revolution. But despite these disappointments in the writing and the excessive commentary on the story, I enjoyed reading the novel's depiction of life during such decisive times in Russia's history. The setting and the characters were equally important in telling the story of Yurii and Lara. Though not a masterpiece in my opinion, it was certainly an interesting novel that was worth the slow read in the end. I must recommend this novel to all those who are interested in a deeply illustrated account of Russian history and an exploration of the themes inherent in that era.

Rating:
Summary: Must read classic
Review: This book is about the survival of human spirit and love above war and other evils that affected Russia during the revolution. The story follows Dr. Zhivago a middle class doctor and his trials and tribulations that he undergoes because of the the revolution. It is about how war affects man, so as to reduce him to his basic instincts. Dr Zhivago's unflinching love for Lara, his moral responsibilities o his family and the beautiful Russian countryside juxtaposed with horrifying images of war make this book a great peace of literature. The writer expresses his political views through Dr Zhivago and how correct of the author Pasternak to have predicted the downfall of communism. I would definitely recommend this book as this is one of the greatest books of this century.