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Georgia Scott's Reviews > Doctor Zhivago
Doctor Zhivago
by
by
"Ever since his schooldays he had dreamed of writing a book in prose, a book of impressions of life in which he could conceal, like buried sticks of dynamite, the most striking things he had so far seen and thought about."
Zhivago dreamed. Pasternak did it. The sticks of dynamite are here. Yet, in common with the real thing, not all go off.
This story of a flawed marriage, a flawed love affair, and a flawed system of government perhaps could not be otherwise. As with Persian carpets, the flaws may be necessary.
Reading it can be like trudging through snow drifts at times. Slow going. Hard to see where it's leading. The sentences are weighted with a weariness as it moves along. I nearly gave up more than once.
Then, something that Yury, Tonya, or Lara said drew me back. I couldn't leave them.
I still haven't. Not entirely. Snowflakes cling to my eyelashes.
Zhivago dreamed. Pasternak did it. The sticks of dynamite are here. Yet, in common with the real thing, not all go off.
This story of a flawed marriage, a flawed love affair, and a flawed system of government perhaps could not be otherwise. As with Persian carpets, the flaws may be necessary.
Reading it can be like trudging through snow drifts at times. Slow going. Hard to see where it's leading. The sentences are weighted with a weariness as it moves along. I nearly gave up more than once.
Then, something that Yury, Tonya, or Lara said drew me back. I couldn't leave them.
I still haven't. Not entirely. Snowflakes cling to my eyelashes.
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Doctor Zhivago.
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Reading Progress
August 1, 2022
– Shelved
(Hardcover Edition)
August 1, 2022
– Shelved as:
to-read
(Hardcover Edition)
November 19, 2022
–
Started Reading
November 19, 2022
– Shelved
November 23, 2022
–
13.28%
"The dizzying number of characters is like being in a blizzard. The snow doesn't just fall it goes sideways, then whirls upward. It's slow going as a result. i understand why many readers gave up. But, heck, I'm from New England. We know snow and write long books, too. Got to get my boots back and read more."
page
68
November 26, 2022
–
77.34%
""The great misfortune, the root of all the evil to come, was the loss of faith in the value of personal opinions. People imagined that it was out of date to follow their own moral sense, that they must all sing the same tune in chorus, and live by other people's notions, the notions that were being crammed down everybody's throat."
I'm getting now why this was banned."
page
396
I'm getting now why this was banned."
November 27, 2022
–
79.88%
""I love all that is unusual in you, the inconvenient. and all the ordinary things which, in you, are made precious to me by being combined in an extraordinary way; your face which is made beautiful by your expression, though perhaps it would be plain without it, your intelligence and your talent which replace your will - for you have no will. All of it is dear to me." At last Tonya speaks. It's heartbreaking."
page
409
December 8, 2022
–
0.78%
""The riddle of life, the riddle of death, the beauty of genius, the beauty of loving - that, yes, that we understood. As for such petty trifles as re-shaping the world - these things, no thank you, they are not for us."
Lara sums it up. I'll try my best in a review to do the same."
page
4
Lara sums it up. I'll try my best in a review to do the same."
December 8, 2022
–
100%
""The riddle of life, the riddle of death, the beauty of genius, the beauty of loving - that, yes, that we understood. As for such petty trifles as re-shaping the world - these things, no thank you, they are not for us."
Lara sums it up. I'll try my best to do the same.
(Review to come.)"
page
640
Lara sums it up. I'll try my best to do the same.
(Review to come.)"
August 3, 2024
–
Finished Reading
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by
Lori
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rated it 5 stars
Dec 12, 2022 09:24AM
Lovely review, Georgia! How could you leave these characters not knowing their story. I agree they stay with you. I’m so glad you didn’t give up on them. And thank you for the friend request! Look forward to reading more of your reviews!
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Lori wrote: "Lovely review, Georgia! How could you leave these characters not knowing their story. I agree they stay with you. I’m so glad you didn’t give up on them. And thank you for the friend request! Look ..."Thank you, Lori. I look forward to reading your reviews, too.
Georgia, have you seen this film? I'm wondering how it would compare to the novel (which I haven't read). Beautiful review!
Kimber wrote: "Georgia, have you seen this film? I'm wondering how it would compare to the novel (which I haven't read). Beautiful review!"Saw it, then thought I was seeing it again my first winter in Poland as I looked out at expanses of snow from a train. Sent away for the film to watch over the holidays. But from what I remember, Zhivago's wife comes more to life in the novel for me. She's very strong and loves him with as great a passion as he has for Lara.
Kimber wrote: "Georgia, have you seen this film? I'm wondering how it would compare to the novel (which I haven't read). Beautiful review!"Kimber, I watched the film last night and this is just one difference from the novel. Omar Sharif is beautiful, simply beautiful to look at. Had I been either woman he loved, I don't know how I could have slept. I'd have wanted to just look at him all night. Those lashes and eyes! He is magnificent. In the novel, he is not. Pasternak describes him as being quite ordinary with a nose of no distinction. In either case, as I am poet, too, we'd risk bumping into each other in the dark as we got up in the night to jot down thoughts.
The ending of the film: it was the acting of Omar Sharif!-somehow, the way he embodied this character: I started crying and just bawled for 20 minutes straight. It was an amazing moment from a film. What an acting performance. I don't think I could read the book because of that moment.
Kimber wrote: "The ending of the film: it was the acting of Omar Sharif!-somehow, the way he embodied this character: I started crying and just bawled for 20 minutes straight. It was an amazing moment from a film..."The moments I could have cried reading the novel were when the women spoke of their love for him. Tonja's letter to him is heart rending. Her tears smear the ink. At Dr Zhivago's funeral, Lara compares him to an ocean. That got to me. But, so much else in the novel is weighed down with politics that I think you may be right to just enjoy watching the film again.
Come to think of it, at the end all the dynamite sticks buried in the novel exploded at Pasternak in his real life with a vengeance, after the novel had been published abroad and especially after the Nobel prize.
Irena wrote: "Come to think of it, at the end all the dynamite sticks buried in the novel exploded at Pasternak in his real life with a vengeance, after the novel had been published abroad and especially after t..."Yes, Irena. It was by all accounts brutal. He was called a fascist and publicly scorned. According to his nephew, Pasternak died a broken man.
I love that image of the snowflakes clinging to your eyelashes, Georgia!
David wrote: "I love that image of the snowflakes clinging to your eyelashes, Georgia!"They are still there. The best books never leave us entirely. They can cling to us for life.
