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ealkotob 's review for:
Doctor Zhivago
by Boris Pasternak
This book is an example of false advertising. Typically known as a tragic, epic love story, Doctor Zhivago the book is not that. Having never seen the film, I didn't know what to expect, but upon reading I still received disappointment. There is hardly a plot, I didn't really care about the "main" characters, and it really was more a politically centered novel so without knowledge of Russian history you are left confused and unsure which characters represent what and it is a huge bore if you care nothing about Russian political history.
Speaking of characters, THERE ARE SO MANY and they all have at least 3 different names so you get confused who they are. Even worse is that after a lengthy description of characters, you realize they are never going to appear in the book again so you wonder what the point was for them being there in the first place. I really don't know what the point of at least 3/4 of the characters were since they were introduced lengthily for a chapter, then appeared randomly later on for a few sentences or never appeared again. I do not know what to think of this book and after page 280 I ended up skimming to the end because I just wanted to be finished with it, similar to ripping off a band aid. I am giving it 3 stars since I know it was originally written in Russian and my translation may give me a different experience, but truthfully I want to rate it a 2.5 even though I loved the first 100 or so pages, but after that it went sort of downhill and I became bored to tears. Although titled Doctor Zhivago, a more appropriate title may be Random People Who Lived in Russia during the Russian Revolution.
Speaking of characters, THERE ARE SO MANY and they all have at least 3 different names so you get confused who they are. Even worse is that after a lengthy description of characters, you realize they are never going to appear in the book again so you wonder what the point was for them being there in the first place. I really don't know what the point of at least 3/4 of the characters were since they were introduced lengthily for a chapter, then appeared randomly later on for a few sentences or never appeared again. I do not know what to think of this book and after page 280 I ended up skimming to the end because I just wanted to be finished with it, similar to ripping off a band aid. I am giving it 3 stars since I know it was originally written in Russian and my translation may give me a different experience, but truthfully I want to rate it a 2.5 even though I loved the first 100 or so pages, but after that it went sort of downhill and I became bored to tears. Although titled Doctor Zhivago, a more appropriate title may be Random People Who Lived in Russia during the Russian Revolution.