Doctor Zhivago Update


This was a huge mistake. On the heels of the "Wuthering Heights" beatdown, I started "Doctor Zhivago" (my copy is actually 50 years old). Ouch. If this is a faithful rendering of life before the Communist Revolution, I can see why people were ok with Lenin, Stalin & co. It's a gulag archipelago of boredom. Here are some excerpts:

"More vividly than ever he realized that art has two constant, two unending concerns: it always meditates on death and thus it always creates life. All great, genuine art resembles and continues the Revelation of St. John."
"All the same, I'm feeling wonderful. I'm so happy."
"His relations with his wife were good but lacked simplicity."

It's picking up a bit now that war is setting in, but this is just a beating. How do relations with a wife lack simplicity? WTF? If this doesn't improve, I'm shunning "classics" like baseball shuns Bonds. On the positive side, the upcoming winter leaves open the possibility of everyone being eaten by rats.