Status Updates From Europe Central

Already I've gone down 10+ Wikipedia rabbit holes. There's not a name I've looked up whose life didn't end in murder, execution, assassination, or suicide. Resonant quote: "half-literate faces, none of whom could grant the bearer absolution from fear, but any one of whom possessed full authority to shoot. Under the stipulations of the Red Terror, mistaken ruthlessness would be forgiven; mistaken mercy might not be."

The last battle scenes with our erstwhile telephonist bored me. Maybe that was the point? Now we are back with Elana and Shostakovich, and I still feel a lack of narrative drive. I am used to the male gaze issue, after all, we are looking at this woman from the perspective of a particular man who only sees her in relation to himself, but I feel done with his worship. Maybe I need a break at nearly 600 pages in?