Doctor Zhivago
by Boris Pasternak
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Book Summary Information
Author: Boris PasternakEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Published)
Published: 1958
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 456
Publisher: Signet
Book Reviews of Doctor Zhivago
Book Review: "War and Peace" for the 20th Century
Summary: 5 Stars
When Boris Pasternak wrote "Doctor Zhivago" at a writer's community in Russia, where he could be among literary people, he kept it under cover, knowing that the Soviet Union would never let it be published in Russia.
After a friend smuggled the manuscript out, it was first published in Italy and became a world-wide sensation by 1956.
Eleven years later, I was a young lad in my first year of high school, tired of comic books and ready to spread my wings into the world of literature. Daunted by the sheer size of "War and Peace", I saw the movie "Doctor Zhivago" and decided to check out the original book.
What a feast!
Yuri Zhivago is the son of a wealthy businessman who died of alcohol. His mother dies when Yuri is only a boy. Raised by his aunt and uncle, Yuri becomes a doctor and poet, marries his cousin, Tonia Gromeko and settles in Moscow to practice medicine and write poetry. But, his world is turned upside down by World War I and the Russian Revolution. While in the army, Yuri meets and later falls in love with Lara Antipov, whose husband is a White Revolutionary and is presumed killed in action.
Yuri is captured by counter-revolutionaries and escapes, walking for miles, half-frozen and seeking Lara. Lara has been abused as a young woman by Victor Komarovsky, a corrupt lawyer who is "in touch" with Yuri's half-brother, a Red officer who had helped Yuri's family flee Moscow during the Stalinist purges.
And so it goes on, with enough sub-plots and back-stories to make a very sprawling read. "Zhivago" enjoyed a revival during the Sizties, after David Lean's film was released, and I do remember finding a strange "analysis" book at my local library, written by two Russians living here, who insisted that Pasternak's characters were "symbols" - Lara represented Russia in its purity before the Revolution, Yuri as the middle class, Komarovsky as the corrupt citizens who wanted to keep the status quo, and so on. And so Pasternak set these "symbols" and metaphors into a very realistically written novel.
Another aspect of this novel is where Pasternak has his characters "linked" to others by certain events, relationships, and so on. Which goes to show how much art mirrors life. Even with nothing to connect people but - other people.
Forget David Lean's film: the "soap opera" element that Robert Bolt wrote into it just doesn't do justice to this rich and magnificent story, comparable in sweep to "Gone With The Wind" and "War and Peace".
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