I had to read this book for one of my classes. I found this to be incredibly boring, it seemed to take 10 pages to say something when 2 was all the was really needed. I also find it had to rate this book, since its a book of facts, but I did find how it was put together to be a little dry.

This was an okay read. Not an incredible book to me.

This is likely because it was a very heavy history book. By the title, it wasn't clear if it was a history book, but yes, it was.

3.0/5

If you like non-fiction and modern history than this book is very interesting. I learned a lot about post WWII Russia that I had no clue about (the things they leave out of World History classes). It was also a great book to finish right before Banned Books Week, as it shows what can happen when a real culture starts banning books and the ideas that spur them. Cold War Russia was a real life dystopian novel. It didn't make me want to read Doctor Zhivago but I appreciate its place in modern literature and modern history.

I do not know enough about Russia to keep reading books about Russia. You'd think that the books would help. They do not. Also, Pasternak seemed awful.

I read this to satisfy the spy theme on my bingo reading challenge for the year, but I'm not sure if it really does....maybe I was expecting a fiction thriller and that's not how the real world worked all the time. It was definitely fascinating how the CIA took interest in such a mundane book, but the themes were genuinely dangerous to communism.

I also think I would have enjoyed this more if I had read (or maybe even watched) Dr. Zhivago before reading this, as I would have understood everything that happens in the book. There is a great description of the book, but since it was my first exposure to the story, I only remembered bits and pieces as I read the rest of this and they regularly reference back to it.

Listening to this was also difficult because there were ALOT of people involved in this. A list of individuals and their general descriptions would have helped a lot! I had the same complaint about Game of Thrones and books like it, but those are easier to pull up a list of characters.

This was a fascinating read - basically the "biography" of a book as well as its author, Boris Pasternak. I remember loving the movie of "Doctor Zhivago" when I was a teenager, and I'm inspired now to read the new translation of the novel that is supposed to be more faithful to the original Russian text.
Recently de-classified CIA documents uncovered the convoluted path taken by this book as it gradually made its way around the world. Learning about life in the Soviet Union under Stalin and other regimes was fascinating, if appalling. Pasternak had been revered for much of his poetry, but the novel "Doctor Zhivago" was seen as anti-Communist by the government, and he had to smuggle it out of the country to be published (in Italy initially). Through a fascinating turn of events, the CIA got hold of a copy and decided to publish a Russian language version and ingeniously sneak copies into Russia. Pasternak eventually received the Nobel Prize in literature, but was coerced into declining the award. He lived in constant fear of political repercussions to his families (he supported his mistress's family as well as his own family). Income from his book had to be brought in by couriers and hidden away.
Throughout the book there are references to and quotes from major figures in politics, literature and media - Kruschev, Hemingway, Camus, Buckley... Pasternak's impact was profound, and I had no idea until I read this book.
Now to add "Doctor Zhivago" to my "to read" list....

to-read