Finished: Dr. Zhivago (Pasternak) Eh, disappointed in this one...not at all what I expected! I expected this to be more of a sweeping love story, and instead it was a patchy exposition on the political and social beliefs in Russia during World War I and then the revolution. I can remember scenes from the movie as a child, but I'm pretty certain I never watched the movie in it's entirety. I remember the snowy landscapes, and the handsome Dr. Zhivago, and the beautiful Lara. I guess I never realized that Yuri Zhivago was a married man who fell in love with another woman, Lara, and basically pined away for her until he died before the age of forty. Yuri is a doctor and deep thinker who has lost his mother at the age of 10 and who had already been deserted by his father. You would think that experience alone would cause him to behave differently with his own wife and child, but he's far too introspective and selfish. He marries his childhood sweetheart Tonia, and does truly love her, and their child, or so it would seem. Yuri is recruited into the army as a doctor during World War I and spends many years there, coming home after being wounded and not really knowing his child at all. He also meets Lara, a beautiful woman who he actually first came across as a child, who is acting as a nurse during the war. Lara joins the war effort in search of what happened to her own beloved husband, Pasha, who is reported to have been killed, but has really run off to reinvent himself as a Russian revolutionary leader. Yuri and Lara don't have an affair during the war, but there is a definite attraction. Anyway, once home, Yuri dedicates himself to Tonia and their son, but times are harsh in Moscow after the war, so they move to a rural village in Russia which is even harsher. One town away...Lara has gone back to her home before the war. Soon, Yuri and Lara DO begin a love affair, despite Yuri's professed love for his wife...and despite the fact that Tonia may be pregnant again with another child. Yuri just can't get over himself and how much he feels Lara is his soul mate in beliefs, etc. One day, he finally breaks it off with Lara and decides he will go home and be faithful to his family. On his way home, he is kidnapped by the revolutionary troops and forced to be their medical doctor for years. His family has no idea where he has disappeared to and he never sees them again. :-( He doesn't even know if his wife has a son or daughter. He finally escapes after 2 or 3 years and rather than making his way back to the village where his family was, because he hears that village was bombed and that his family escaped, he makes his way back to Lara's house. Lara nurses him back to health and lets him know that she actually met Tonia and helped her deliver a baby girl, named after Yuri's beloved mother. Lara tells Yuri that his family has moved back to Moscow. But...does Yuri leave immediately to go back to his family?? No, he continues to recuperate with Lara and carry on as if she's the love of his life. He also begins writing, and as is prominent in this book, goes off on many political tangents. This seems to be a common thread in most of the Russian books I read....they can't just tell the story...they must expound on and on about every political aspect and belief. Anyway, Yuri finally hears from Tonia and she tells him they have been exiled to Paris...so they are alive! She tells him how much she loves him and wonders what she ever did for him to fall in love with someone else. Meanwhile, Yuri insists that Lara take her and Pasha's daughter and flee to safety when it is clear that the revolutionists and anyone connected with them are being hunted down. Yuri then spends the next few years moping, destitute, and and finally living with yet another woman with whom he has two children, before dying of a heart ailment before he turns forty. He laments for his lost family and for his lost love, Lara, all those years. Both Lara and Yuri's half-brother, Evgraf, show up for his funeral. Evgraf is an interesting character who shows up throughout the book whenever Yuri is in dire straights. Evgraf, who is the son of Yuri's father and some princess has the money and power to get Yuri and his family out of various desperate situations. When Evgraf first meets Yuri he seems to worship the ground he walks on and will do anything to help him, but the author never really develops this relationship. I would have much rather seen this develop than continuously read the political diatribes. Oh well! In all, a very disappointing book compared to what I was mistakenly expecting!