Doctor Zhivago

“I don't think I could love you so much if you had nothing to complain of and nothing to regret. I don't like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and of little value. Life hasn't revealed its beauty to them.”

Good Russian romance. It kinda loses focus whenever it looks away from the two main characters, but it stays on track. I was kinda confused with about what was happening a) because of all the Russian names that I couldn't keep track of and b) because Pasternak doesn't take much time to give context to the situation the characters are in. It's understandable; the intended audience wouldn't need context having just lived through it, but I feel like some translator notes would not go awry.

More like Dr. Douchebag. I thought the main character in David Copperfield was ineffectual, but at least he didn't do any damage. This guy on the contrary has no character whatsoever and does terrifying damage to the people around him. And I don't mean that he is weak or something, no I mean that he is purely a device, an empty point of view for Pasternak to describe the living condition of Russia during the revolution. At three quarter of the book Zhivago gives up the woman he is supposedly in love with for no reason at all–there is no need for it, no danger, no external or internal pressure, nobody is obliging him and he gives her up to the only man she really fears–and she ends up badly. All this just to drive the book toward a gratuitous boring as hell ending (you that when a writer writes, “and now all we have to do is describe the last eight years of Zhivago's life,” nothing good can come of it). Throughout the book you have no idea what Zivagho is thinking or feeling on any important issues. You hear a lot of bs about politics, the landscape, the revolution, Jesus Christ, food and so on, but then you actually have no idea how he feels about Lara. In fact at a certain point you suddenly discover he is in love with her, with absolutely no warning whatsoever. The only thing that is good is Pasternak's ability to describe a place or landscape, which is remarkable. But basically the whole book is a long tedious description. What a downer.