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Jan 29, 2012

Newengland rated it:

You'd think, having Julie Christie as a mistress and Geraldine Chaplin as a wife, that you couldn't do much better than that in life. Alas, you can, because if it's that good and it's all taken away and your net time with each amounts to squatski (Russian for "squat"), in the scheme of your life, maybe life's a bitch after all.

Dr. Zhivago brings us another Russian opus dealing with man as pawn against the great playing board of history. You can see why the Soviets banned More...

8 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jun 15, 2011

K.D. rated it:

AUGUST 2 REVIEW:
After finishing the book last night, I immediately wrote my review. I always do that because I right away start reading the next book. Also, writing what I learned from the book and what I felt while reading it are easier if the story is still fresh in my mind.

However, for almost the whole day, I thought that I missed the whole point of the story. My August 1 Review below definitely was too weak for a beautifully told forbidden love story of Yuri and Lara.
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9 comments like (11 people liked it)

Nov 12, 2010

Pavel rated it:

"The time is out of joint"

In the mid 90s I was surfing through radio chanells and stumbled across techno music station and 2 Djs were talking. Their idea was that Pasternak somehow prevents their music to succeed, they were convincing their listeners to quit paying attention to Pasternak "and everything like that" and start to admire something more important, which of course was their techno music. Not that I'm going to lecture those people, especially as because More...

7 comments like (5 people liked it)

Nov 08, 2011

Sue rated it:

Set in in the years leading up to, during, and after the Russian revolution, Doctor Zhivago touches on multiple facets of the Russian people, land, history, religion, politics as seen through Zhivago's eyes (as well as those he encounters during his life).

It is a complex book, moving sometimes swiftly and sometimes very slowly from one character to another, from city to country, from one battlefield to another, from war to unsettled peace. The descriptions of the countryside are poet More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Nov 07, 2009

Griffin rated it:

My first reading of Dr. Zhivago was in high school. At 15, the book was a chore. Impenetrable and numerous Russian names (often for the same character) and endless description of the Russian landscape left me exhausted and unimpressed. After re-reading and enjoying other high school assignments, I came across Dr. Zhivago on my bookshelf and wondered if I would find more appreciation for Mr. Pasternak's novel ten years later.

Yes, I did. And no, I didn't.

With ten more y More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Oct 16, 2007

andrea rated it:

An epic tragic tale spanning the tumultuous life of a poetic dissenter during the Russian Revolution and early era of communism. The story moves along disjointedly depicting moments in Zhivago’s life beginning with the funeral of his mother at age 4 to his growing up on Moscow among relatives while going to school, his family life with his wife/companion from childhood, his involuntary experiences in WWI and the revolution, and the timeless tale of his love affair with Lara, the woman he looks More...

4 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jan 06, 2012

Charity rated it:

I had really high hopes for this book...maybe because I really enjoyed the movie adaptation and maybe because it is an often talked about, revered book...but, frankly, the book did not live up to my expectations. Now, I have read several Russian novels (though I am no expert, by any stretch of the imagination), so I don't trip over the names, and I find bleak books to be endearing. Why, then, did I have such a difficult time curling up with Yury and Lara as this winter came to a close? I don't r More...

8 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 11, 2008

Amy rated it:

You can not miss this book! If you get the chance, you MUST read it.

Not only because it's a great historical and literary addition to one's memory bank, but also for what it (and all Russian novels, by the way) teaches you about human nature.

Antonia is Dr. Yuri Zhivago's wife, his partner and clearly his biggest fan. Lara is Zhivago's mistress--sort of by accident. She's there for him when Antonia isn't or cannot be, like when Zhivago gets deathly ill miles from home. She More...

4 comments like (5 people liked it)

Sep 05, 2010

El rated it:

As I've already stated, this book has been on my bookshelf since I was about thirteen when my mother gave me a copy for Christmas one year. She talked to me about the story, about the movie and her adoration of Omar Sharif because of said movie. And because I was a punk kid I never sat down to read it. (Correction: I sat down a couple times to read it over the years but never managed to make it past a page or two because I evidently had more important things going on in my life.) More...

4 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2009

Dusty rated it:

As far as I know, Doctor Zhivago appeals for three reasons. First, it is an epic by and about a man caught in the thick of the tumultuous period of Russian enlightenment and revolution. Second, like many epics, it follows the romance between a man and a woman (or in this book´s case, three women) whose love is made impossible by the political circumstances in which they live. Third, and lastly, it was bravely published in the 1950s, censored immediately by the Soviets but heralded by non-Red lit More...

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

Jun 01, 2010

Erin rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 25, 2010

nanto rated it:

Soal cerita tentang buku ini semua pasti semestinya tau. Semestinya yah! Walau ternyata ada yang bikin saya ngenes karena pernah mendengar celetukan seseorang. Dia menganggap Zhivago yang karangan Pasternak yang Rusia itu sebuah buku kiri. Waduh mbok kabeh seko Rusia kui mesti kiri opo? Opo Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn pengarang Gulag yang Rusia Nasionalis itu itu juga nantinya jadi kiri?

Buat sebuah negeri seperti Indonesia yang pernah dicekam horor "komunisme" oleh sebuah rej More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 15, 2008

Birrells rated it:

I found this book in my grandma's library. I actually read it 2 summer's ago. While I'm a fast reader, this book took me nearly 3 months to read on and off. I've always wanted to read it. It was definitely the most difficult book I've ever read. I learned alot about the era of time the book was set in. I also learned alot about the history of Russia and surrounding countries and the government upheavel. It's interesting considering what I learned in World History and the view from our text books More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 23, 2011

Mike rated it:

Not long after I began reading this book I became aware that I was truly reading a masterpiece. Pasternak's words are some of the most beautiful that I've ever read in my life. His descriptions jump from the page and his similes are the best I've ever seen. I feel blessed that I had the opportunity to read such a masterwork of high art.

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2010

Michelle added it

"Caution - this is definitely NOT the movie. The movie took liberties and focused on the love story between Lara and Yuri. For those who think that this book is going to be just like the movie, please take note.[return][return]Now that I have that out of the way, Mr. Pasternak's novel is very much a love story but rather than between man and woman, it is between a man and his country. Mr. Pasternak's love for Russia is evident in the care he takes with the scenery and developing the charact More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 08, 2009

CaterinaAnna rated it:

Can't find the ancient edition I have in the list, so have picked this one instead.

I was disappointed in this: not because of the film - I remember little of that except for a few scenes with plot and dialogue missing - but because it seemed to fall between the broad historical novel and the romance without being either thoroughly.

As with War and Peace, I learnt some Russian history from it, but there was more underlying assumption that one already knew the history affec More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 03, 2009

Laurie rated it:

Reviewing a classic is always difficult business. Most people are likely familiar with the storyline, if only from the Omar Sharif film. Pasternak tells the story of an elite doctor and his family whose lives are thrown into turmoil by the Russian Revolution. During the revolution Zhivago loses his connections to his family and his wealth. But weaving throughout this undeniably tragic tale is the real focus, Zhivago's blossoming relationship with a young woman, Lara. The two come in and out of c More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 14, 2008

Wayne rated it:

I have always found it difficult to answer those "favorites" questions: "What is your favorite movie/ ice cream flavor/ etc.?" Being an obsessive reader, I would have expected that naming my favorite book would be the hardest thing in the world, much harder than naming my favorite flavor of ice cream. But suddenly one day I realized that Dr. Zhivago is exactly that; my favorite book of all, just ahead of Middlemarch. So much so that I usually start to read it again as soo More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 02, 2012

Marigold rated it:

I always feel a little odd writing a review of a Nobel Prize winning piece of literature. Especially when I’m only giving it 3 and a half stars! Who am I to say this wasn’t a thrilling book?! Doctor Zhivago is really about all of Russia, seen through the eyes of Yuri, who is the title Doctor Zhivago character. It takes place during the Russian Revolution of 1918, followed by the Russian Civil War, & there’s a bit of action during World War II as well. Pasternak’s depiction of war is devastating More...

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Nov 12, 2011

Caroline rated it:

I'm lost meandering through this book like the train carrying Yuri and Tonya into the Russian backwaters. I really want to like this book, just listen to this endorsement featured on the back cover: "A book that made a most profound impression upon me and the memory of which still does...not since Shakespeare has love been so fully, vividly, scrupulously and directly communication" and this "..[belongs] to that small group of novels by which all others are ultimately judged". More...

0 comments like

Sep 29, 2011

Kathy rated it:

I read this a few years ago and just remember that it was excruciating to finish. Normally I'm a huge fan of Russian literature, so this was a disappointing first for me.
After some clunky dialogue, Pasternak will suddenly decide to describe some trees for what seems like forever. Although sometimes beautiful, it became eye-rollingly tedious and I'd skip to the end of the paragraph to wait for something to happen. I love description, but not to the detriment of what is supposed to be trans More...

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May 29, 2011

Michael rated it:

Doctor Zhivago turned out to be a more ambiguous novel than I had expected. It demanded a little effort to read, too, which can be a good thing. It wasn't a book simply to be consumed and enjoyed, but rather one that required me to stretch a bit to meet it on an equal footing. And it was worth doing so. In many ways, this 1957 novel is an early obituary for the Soviet Union. It concludes with a chapter of poetry, which may not be as central to the story as author Pasternak believed, but whi More...

0 comments like

Jan 20, 2011

Coli rated it:

Dr. Zhivago is a book based around a relatively simple and straightforward plot, that due to its massive list of characters, not to mention their difficult to pronounce and undifferentiable names, is sometimes difficult to discern. Following Dr. Yuri Zhivago through the numerous momentous and incredibly coincidental situations that he stumbles upon is interesting and all the more exciting due to their complete unexpectedness. His entire life, it seems, is based on a series of complete accidents. More...

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Dec 22, 2010

Esther rated it:

In spite of the things I dislike about Russian novels: 1) Too many long names - and then the different versions of those names - sometimes as many as three! 2) Too much about politics (yes, I know, I asked for it). 3) Too much philosophy. And 4) No sense of humour whatsoever - in spite of all the things I didn't like about Dr. Zhivago, I cannot deny that it was compelling, and was interspersed with some incredibly beautiful writing (in between all that other stuff I didn't like). Pasternak is ex More...

5 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 27, 2010

Caitlin rated it:

This is a brutally honest rendering of the tragedy of the Russian Revolution. Through his characters Pasternak explores the fallacies of the different philosophies of the political groups. The only conscencus among the group is that the rein of the czars needed to end. The Romanov family ruled for over 300 years and the progress the country made was not up to the standard of the rest of Europe. Highlighing the tragedy of the civil war, which started near the end of WWI, is the lovely story of th More...

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Oct 22, 2010

Jillian rated it:

Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago is too intellectual for its own good. Instead of staking his emotions in the passages, the author takes the intellectual's viewpoint: the Russian Revolution was necessary but what the revolutionaries brought was even worse. We all know that, we took a history class at some point. Everything is so much easier with hindsight.

Yes, this book was written in the late 50's, the Cold War is still at large, but Zhivago never really seems passionate about the issu

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Oct 20, 2010

Mweene rated it:

I read this book 20 years ago and so my memories of it may appear foggy but i just have to say something. The love between Yuri and Lara left me speechless. To think that even today i can still remember how desperately i wanted these two to stay together says it all. The book is a master piece. It makes you care about the characters profoundly and those Russians just know how to put on paper what human emotions are really all about. There are moments of course when the book seems to drag but it More...

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Aug 15, 2010

Bob rated it:

I've never seen the whole film but its treacly "metrocolor" and images of idealistically glaring revolutionaries in austere steel-rimmed specs are hard to shake while finally reading the book.

My 1991 Pantheon edition has an introductory essay by John Bayley (Iris Murdoch's husband, I remind you) in which he cites a few contradictory positions on the book, notably Nabokov calling it "a piece of muddled and sentimental fiction ill-advisedly composed by a man who was a ta More...

0 comments like

Jun 22, 2010

Charlotte rated it:

This was a very tedious read for me. The cast of characters if difficult to keep straight. They all have multiple names, the names are long, weird Russian ones, and it is initially difficult to separate the important characters from those whose only purpose is to appear in a scene or two to add atmosphere. There were a couple of scenes that I loved (one has teenage Lara lying awake and experiencing the excitement and danger of burgeoning sexuality, one is of Yuri being shaved after having esc More...

0 comments like

Feb 15, 2010

Tommy rated it:

I loved this book. It was beautiful, heartrending and full of small moments of intense love and despair. The relationships between characters are very complex with lots of depth and facets that make it hard to blame them for the sometimes questionable yet very real decisions they make. It's almost by the very act of surviving they are absolved from what in different times would be judged as abandonment of families and responsibilities. This also leads you to wonder if two of the characters ever More...

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