Lapo

Meh. The book started out much better than the movie and seemed to be heading toward a much better development, but then it kind of flopped for me. It takes too many narrative shortcuts–I know you'll protest that this is a children book, but that is no justification for me. The Hobbit was a children book too and it was perfectly written. It also suffers from shifts of tone in my opinion–it seems to want to make fun of all Norse mythology and Viking lore, but then it adheres to it most strictly for its climax, which in my opinion is thoroughly underwhelming and honestly not very imaginative. It's a pity, because I was really looking forward to reading it. It's not a bad book, but not good either.

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.

I saw the first episode of the TV series and I was thoroughly unimpressed, but I thought, “they made it into a movie, the book is probably excellent.” I picked up the book and I was appalled. People must really love soap operas, because that is what this book is. Whoever compared this to Tolkien's work must be out of their mind. This is fantasy soap opera. Terrible trash.