Book Club Discussion - Doctor Zhivago

[ufcasey]

It's time for our first book club discussion of 2022! The book selected for January was Doctor Zhivago.

I had a hard time finding discussion questions, everything was more along the lines of a study guide for people taking a test about it. So feel free to just discuss any of your opinions on the book - what you liked best, what you liked least, etc.

[ufcasey]

Tagging people who might have read it:
travella, charlatti, meowmaps, dontlook, msmerymac

[ufcasey]

Alright, so I did the audiobook and that might have been a mistake. I quit only 10% into the book (all of part 1, and half of part 2 in this Wikipedia article).  #sorrynotsorry

There were already so many characters! And yes, it's a Russian book translated into English, but all the Russian names were hard for me to keep straight.

[meowmaps]

I couldn’t get into it. I don’t know if it’s a timing thing or what but doesn’t seem like it was too popular around here!

[charlatti]

I tried and gave up (I think I got one chapter farther than ufcasey ). I have not had much success with Russian novels — they’re so very long! I read a synopsis of the plot thinking that would help, but that made me want to read it less. This is a weird love story.

[travella]

It was a difficult book to get through, but I am glad that I finished.  I hate giving up on books, especially classics.  I don't know what to say so here is what I wrote in my review. 

I wondered while reading this how much is lost in translation and by being read by someone with little to no knowledge of the Russian culture, history, or literature. The writing is so dry and flat. I wondered if this is how it would truly read to a Russian. I found that my eyes were constantly glazing over, especially in the beginning, and that I had to go back and reread sections constantly because I had no idea what I had read.

150 pages into the book I read an analysis of the book to see what I was missing because I considered adding the book to my DNF list. It helped me to understand a little better why I was having such a difficult time with the book and helped me understand what was going on. For instance, I read that having multiple names for one person is common in Russian literature. That was one of my biggest annoyances! I kept thinking they were new characters in the beginning.  I also discovered that I am reading the oldest translation of the book, one that was rushed and considered not very good. So, I have a better idea why this classic was so difficult for me to read.

I ended up kind of liking the story when it was discussing Lara, Yury, and Tonya even though I was irritated by the Yury and Lara relationship. I think it bothered me so much because I couldn't feel the love between them, due to the dry and flat writing. Also, the longer I read the more I disliked Yury. He was constantly running from the messes he was creating. He has a wife and two kids, leaves them for Lara, sends pregnant Lara away (at least this time it's for a good cause, but he never does go look for her afterwards), marries a third
time and has two kids, and then disappears on them too. He's flighty and never seemed to treat any woman with any real respect.

I didn't care for the political portions of the book, although I'm sure this was one of the main reasons the book became a classic. I found this quote interesting though.

"It's only in bad novels that people are divided into two camps and have nothing to do with each other. In real life everything gets mixed up. Don't you think you'd have to be a hopeless nonentity to play only one role all your life, to have only one role in society, always to stand for the same thing?"

[ufcasey]

travella you win for getting through all of it!

I read the entire summary on Wikipedia and I thought the main scope of the plot was interesting enough - the ways in which Lara and Yuri get together and come apart during different points in their lives. But was it necessary to have so many other characters in this book? I mean, this is the character map on the Wikipedia article:




The only ones that truly seemed to matter to the plot were the ones in the boxes as shown above. Sure, some secondary characters are needed to support the plot at various points, but this level of detail? And so many? Just yikes. Maybe when that newest translation of the book comes out at the library I will give this a try again.

[ufcasey]

Also, I wanted to recommend much easier novels set in Russia! Here's some of my favorites:

The Bronze Horseman
A Gentleman in Moscow
The Bear and the Nightingale (this is a trilogy and the second book is better than the first, and the third is better than the second)

[meowmaps]

I love A Gentleman in Moscow!!!

[travella]

Feb 2, 2022 12:51:10 GMT -5 ufcasey said:

travella you win for getting through all of it!

I read the entire summary on Wikipedia and I thought the main scope of the plot was interesting enough - the ways in which Lara and Yuri get together and come apart during different points in their lives. But was it necessary to have so many other characters in this book? I mean, this is the character map on the Wikipedia article:




The only ones that truly seemed to matter to the plot were the ones in the boxes as shown above. Sure, some secondary characters are needed to support the plot at various points, but this level of detail? And so many? Just yikes. Maybe when that newest translation of the book comes out at the library I will give this a try again.

On top of all that you have the person's name, nickname, formal name, etc. depending on the relationship between the characters.  It was a mess at times or most of the time.  I only made it through with the help of outside sources helping me keep it all straight. 

I loved the Bear and The Nightingale.  We read that for book club didn't we?  I remember thinking I wouldn't like it, but ended up loving it.

[ufcasey]

Feb 2, 2022 13:14:37 GMT -5 travella said:

On top of all that you have the person's name, nickname, formal name, etc. depending on the relationship between the characters.  It was a mess at times or most of the time.  I only made it through with the help of outside sources helping me keep it all straight. 

I loved the Bear and The Nightingale.  We read that for book club didn't we?  I remember thinking I wouldn't like it, but ended up loving it.

Yes, that was our pick for December of 2018!   And actually now that I look at it, so was a A Gentleman in Moscow (October 2017).

[Vespasia]

Feb 2, 2022 12:55:46 GMT -5 ufcasey said:

Also, I wanted to recommend much easier novels set in Russia! Here's some of my favorites:

The Bronze Horseman
A Gentleman in Moscow
The Bear and the Nightingale (this is a trilogy and the second book is better than the first, and the third is better than the second)

I loved The Bronze Horseman so much. Have you read any of her books outside of that series? They very different and some are definitely better than others but I like them!

Another recommendation (although I read it 20+ years ago) is Russka by Edward Rutherford

If you want to read about how terrible Putin was as far back as the late 90s, I would recommend anything by Anna Politkovskaya. She was a Russian journalist critical of Putin who was murdered in 2006. 

[dontlook]

I’m another that DNF. I had so many books come in at once and I was instantly confused reading this book. The library had an older translation and I don’t think that helped.

[ufcasey]

Feb 2, 2022 14:15:04 GMT -5 Vespasia said:

I loved The Bronze Horseman so much. Have you read any of her books outside of that series? They very different and some are definitely better than others but I like them!

Another recommendation (although I read it 20+ years ago) is Russka by Edward Rutherford

If you want to read about how terrible Putin was as far back as the late 90s, I would recommend anything by Anna Politkovskaya. She was a Russian journalist critical of Putin who was murdered in 2006. 

I have only read the trilogy of The Bronze Horseman. If you have any other books of hers that you would recommend, I would love to hear them  

I just read some articles about Anna Politkovskaya - it's so disturbing how Russia systematically murders their critics.