peregrrine 's review for:

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

5.0

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Something I was trying to figure out while reading this book was whether Yuri was reasonable. His opinions were often well argued, and some decisions he made were treated as pure fact. However, three decisions were quite contrary to this general description: 

1. His continual pursuit of Lara
2. The scene in which he decides he must shoot but shoots the tree
3. Allowing Lara to travel the country with the man who took advantage of her in her youth when he could have easily accompanied her

It didn’t seem consistent to me whether he was acting in an absurd way or an objective one.

Initially, the endless coincidences bothered me, but I read something by Pasternak explaining that that was the point, as a descriptor of the forces that seem to be at work in life. I suppose that’s okay, although it does give one (me) unrealistic expectations for my likelihood of running into people I want to run into.

As someone once compared to Lara, I read this book mostly trying to figure out what that meant. In the end, I think the scene that explains it best is when she sits on her bed with her hands behind her head at the beginning of the book, thinking of what to do with her day. That or I say “Right?” a lot.

Five stars because I had fun reading it.