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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
Rather than a review for the story Doctor Zhivago, this is more like a review of edition I own, which is like a super-duper-abridged version of the real deal. Around 500-600 pages shortened to just 144 pages, just imagine how dense it is. Alas, I didn't know it when I bought it.
So I stumbled upon this edition on sale in Togamas and bought it right away. I mean, a masterpiece by Boris Pasternak for just about Rp 20.000? (that's no more than $2). No freaking way.
Then I found something...unsatisfying. A friend told me that one of the interesting point of Doctor Zhivago is the poem. I have no idea what poem because there was no poem whatsoever in my edition. Also, it was never clear what 'philosophy' and 'thought' that Yuri wrote in his books (that supposedly would be the ground for 'freedom and spirit for Future Russia'). From the way he was pictured, he was just a doctor with poor decision and unfortunate love triangle that was caught in the wrong place and the wrong time. It's different from the romantic and tragic Yuri Zhivago I have always imagined.
I can't sympathize with Yuri and Lara. How could they cheat and yet still deeply in love with their former spouse? That is not impossible, I know, but in this story it's rather hard to understand. The emotion fell flat, the conversation minimal, and I kept asking myself, "What, they were on the run again? What had they done wrong?" I perused over the pages and found nothing. I wonder, maybe it's because what I read is the incomplete version.
It's hard to imagine what was so offensive about the story that the Soviet Union banned it. And what's so brilliant that Boris Pasternak received a Nobel in literature for this novel? My copy has some sort of defect, no doubt about it. Sure the storyline is clear enough and easy to follow, even for a beginner in Russian-literature reading (me, for example). But every time I read it, I still wonder what else I have missed.
Might be searching for a better edition in the future.
So I stumbled upon this edition on sale in Togamas and bought it right away. I mean, a masterpiece by Boris Pasternak for just about Rp 20.000? (that's no more than $2). No freaking way.
Then I found something...unsatisfying. A friend told me that one of the interesting point of Doctor Zhivago is the poem. I have no idea what poem because there was no poem whatsoever in my edition. Also, it was never clear what 'philosophy' and 'thought' that Yuri wrote in his books (that supposedly would be the ground for 'freedom and spirit for Future Russia'). From the way he was pictured, he was just a doctor with poor decision and unfortunate love triangle that was caught in the wrong place and the wrong time. It's different from the romantic and tragic Yuri Zhivago I have always imagined.
I can't sympathize with Yuri and Lara. How could they cheat and yet still deeply in love with their former spouse? That is not impossible, I know, but in this story it's rather hard to understand. The emotion fell flat, the conversation minimal, and I kept asking myself, "What, they were on the run again? What had they done wrong?" I perused over the pages and found nothing. I wonder, maybe it's because what I read is the incomplete version.
It's hard to imagine what was so offensive about the story that the Soviet Union banned it. And what's so brilliant that Boris Pasternak received a Nobel in literature for this novel? My copy has some sort of defect, no doubt about it. Sure the storyline is clear enough and easy to follow, even for a beginner in Russian-literature reading (me, for example). But every time I read it, I still wonder what else I have missed.
Might be searching for a better edition in the future.
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
Excellent. I'm not sure if every version has this, but I really enjoyed the section with "Yuri's" poems at the end. There's something about Pasternak's style that makes his writing clearer than a few other famous Russian writers (ex. Dostoevsky), without losing that voice that makes him distinguishable as a Russian writer (this could be do to the work of translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky). After having only seen the movie and never read the book, I highly recommend this to anyone who loves the story and wants to experience the drama without the "hollywoodization."
Me ha costado terminarlo y he estado un par de veces a punto de abandonarlo. Tras un comienzo no muy prometedor va cogiendo fuerza, dando la impresión de que se va a convertir en una obra coral que retrate la Rusia a partir de la revolución de 1905. Pero poco a poco va ganando protagonismo Zhivago, hasta que todo acaba girando alrededor suya. Y cuanto más se centraba la novela en Zhivago más aburrida me parecía, a lo que no ayudaban las disgresiones en las que el autor usa alguno de los personajes para soltar sus reflexiones sobre este u otro aspecto de la vida. Las últimas páginas las he leído en diagonal por ver cómo acababa, sin querer dejarla después de haber llegado tan lejos.
I thought I would like this more if I read it again, but unfortunately, I liked it less :(
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I feel like this books was a slow start, had a decent middle, and then a severe drop off at the end. The end of the book especially dips into periods of melodrama that just feel so cloyingly unnecessary. People who had made decisions and sacrifices in order to live are all of the sudden rendered stupid and inept. It just felt like after getting to know these characters they suddenly changed. And it wasn’t even where you would necessarily expect them to change. They had risen to challenges before and adapted to the chaos around them, but the as the novel draws to a close people just seem to give up and stop using their brains.
There are some amazing parts of this story that I did enjoy. But it really fizzled out at the end. It’s like the author is trying desperately to drive home the message of how bad the times were. But it’s like being beaten over the head over and over again while he yells at you, “LOOK HOW BAD IT IS.” It relies too heavily on telling instead is showing at the end.
There are some amazing parts of this story that I did enjoy. But it really fizzled out at the end. It’s like the author is trying desperately to drive home the message of how bad the times were. But it’s like being beaten over the head over and over again while he yells at you, “LOOK HOW BAD IT IS.” It relies too heavily on telling instead is showing at the end.
challenging
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is one of those books that takes me time to read because, well, it's a thick book, but more importantly, very dense.
It feels like a lot of this book includes thoughts from the author himself about Russia back in those days pre and post revolution, and civil war.
We follow a few characters from a young age, including, of course, doctor Jivago. We get to see them grow under huge difficulties, and... oh, what a life, their adult lives are no better!
We follow mostly Jivago, and the way he lives shows us in depth the harshness of life during those decades after the end of the Czars, WWI, the civil war putting Whites and Red under confrontation, and even WWII. We can see how initially people were so open about the revolution, but then how things got so difficult since there was an incredible amount of brutality, Russian against Russian. People lived in misery prior to the revolution, but things got no better after that. And along these terrible years we see Jivago's life entangled first with Tonia, his wife, later with Larissa, his lover, and also how the post revolution takes him away from some people, and again entagles him with others.
There is no joy in this book. None. It is sad, feels depressive, like a grey Winter that never ends. This book is filled with the brutality of people against each other and even the harsh Winters that made people's lives all the worst.
This book definitely needed some serious editing, as there is no need for it to be so dense. There are too many boring passages with religious topics, which I don't find interesting at all and add little to the plot. But I guess that portraits well the way they thought and lived back then. Many of the passages about the revolution and civil war are also too long and dense. They feel like they are appendixes to the story. Pages and pages where we don't even get to follow the main plot anymore. Just following the depressive life back then; the lack of food, the violence, the cold...
I didn't like any of the characters either, didn't engage with them. I felt like I only got to know them superficially. They all feel depressive, like the weather.
With that being said, despite this being a difficult book to read, it is at the same time a great chronicle that portraits really well the difficulties and brutality of the time. What people believed in, and fought for, how things changed over time, how people made enourmous sacrifices to stay alive, how they accepted that life is harsh. But they live with few moments of joy, and everything feels, well... depressive.
It feels like a lot of this book includes thoughts from the author himself about Russia back in those days pre and post revolution, and civil war.
We follow a few characters from a young age, including, of course, doctor Jivago. We get to see them grow under huge difficulties, and... oh, what a life, their adult lives are no better!
We follow mostly Jivago, and the way he lives shows us in depth the harshness of life during those decades after the end of the Czars, WWI, the civil war putting Whites and Red under confrontation, and even WWII. We can see how initially people were so open about the revolution, but then how things got so difficult since there was an incredible amount of brutality, Russian against Russian. People lived in misery prior to the revolution, but things got no better after that. And along these terrible years we see Jivago's life entangled first with Tonia, his wife, later with Larissa, his lover, and also how the post revolution takes him away from some people, and again entagles him with others.
There is no joy in this book. None. It is sad, feels depressive, like a grey Winter that never ends. This book is filled with the brutality of people against each other and even the harsh Winters that made people's lives all the worst.
This book definitely needed some serious editing, as there is no need for it to be so dense. There are too many boring passages with religious topics, which I don't find interesting at all and add little to the plot. But I guess that portraits well the way they thought and lived back then. Many of the passages about the revolution and civil war are also too long and dense. They feel like they are appendixes to the story. Pages and pages where we don't even get to follow the main plot anymore. Just following the depressive life back then; the lack of food, the violence, the cold...
I didn't like any of the characters either, didn't engage with them. I felt like I only got to know them superficially. They all feel depressive, like the weather.
With that being said, despite this being a difficult book to read, it is at the same time a great chronicle that portraits really well the difficulties and brutality of the time. What people believed in, and fought for, how things changed over time, how people made enourmous sacrifices to stay alive, how they accepted that life is harsh. But they live with few moments of joy, and everything feels, well... depressive.