Take a photo of a barcode or cover
elinor_thirteen 's review for:
Doctor Zhivago
by Boris Pasternak
04/27
who am i kidding. i'm not really reading this.
03/15
so after five years i picked this book up again this winter. i know i love the story bc i've watched any film version of it that has ever been made multiple times. but it is tough going. i think pasternak's descriptions of every day life are beautiful and effecting, the purposelessness of suffering and war are so vivid in this story, he does an incredible job of portraying the beauty of life even in the midsts of horror. he's a powerful writer. but the hundred year old politics are impossible to follow (even though i'm sure there is still fall out today from them) and whose who from what little meeting from some faction you've never heard of and every single thing they said and strange laws and stuff that just do not translate to modern times or resonate at all, as well as the multiple POV switches that seem totally pointless when all you want to hear is what is going on with yuri. it makes me feel like you need a BA in russian history to really get it. but i'm going to tough it out, bc i've been rewarded by toughing it out through russian novels before. it seems like a very russian thing to want to portray not just one persons story but take a snapshot of all life as it was in that moment. it's a very nobel pursuit but it makes for some skimming material, for sure. but this book can't have won a nobel peace prize for nothing. i've got it on audio book, so i'm slowly progressing, one bath at a time.
12/10
okay. let's get real here. i thought that reading doctor zhivago during a seriously intense midwest winter would be sort of romantic. WRONG. at this point i cannot read/watch/listen to/interact with any thing else snow related. i haven't been able to even look at the cover of this book in weeks. i will pick this up again in summer time.
who am i kidding. i'm not really reading this.
03/15
so after five years i picked this book up again this winter. i know i love the story bc i've watched any film version of it that has ever been made multiple times. but it is tough going. i think pasternak's descriptions of every day life are beautiful and effecting, the purposelessness of suffering and war are so vivid in this story, he does an incredible job of portraying the beauty of life even in the midsts of horror. he's a powerful writer. but the hundred year old politics are impossible to follow (even though i'm sure there is still fall out today from them) and whose who from what little meeting from some faction you've never heard of and every single thing they said and strange laws and stuff that just do not translate to modern times or resonate at all, as well as the multiple POV switches that seem totally pointless when all you want to hear is what is going on with yuri. it makes me feel like you need a BA in russian history to really get it. but i'm going to tough it out, bc i've been rewarded by toughing it out through russian novels before. it seems like a very russian thing to want to portray not just one persons story but take a snapshot of all life as it was in that moment. it's a very nobel pursuit but it makes for some skimming material, for sure. but this book can't have won a nobel peace prize for nothing. i've got it on audio book, so i'm slowly progressing, one bath at a time.
12/10
okay. let's get real here. i thought that reading doctor zhivago during a seriously intense midwest winter would be sort of romantic. WRONG. at this point i cannot read/watch/listen to/interact with any thing else snow related. i haven't been able to even look at the cover of this book in weeks. i will pick this up again in summer time.