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A Russian poet, whose novel DOKTOR ZHIVAGO brought him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958. Though Pasternak was not a political writer, the award brought him brought him into the spotlight of international politics and he had to decline the honour. The novel was banned in the Soviet Union and Pasternak was expelled from the Union of Soviet Writers. After Doctor Zhivago had reached the West, it was soon translated into 18 languages. Pasternak was rehabilitated posthumously in 1987, which made possible the publication of his major work.
Doctor Zhivago, a modern novel in the great Russian tradition, was barred from publication in the author's own country - the Soviet Union. It is in Italy and, now, in the United States that this fine work must seek its audience. Embracing the first half of the century, the opening chapters portray the pre-revolutionary atmosphere of unrest in which Zhivago's intellectual and moral ideals take root. After his service in the army he takes his family to the Urals and there is kidnapped by partisan forces to Siberia where he leads an inhuman existence. After a successful escape he has a brief reunion with his true love and companion and travels to Moscow only to find his family in exile. Rather than capitulate to the obligatory Weltanschaung he waives the academic life for manual labour and finally dies in a tram, suffering. The critical picture of Soviet society - the price of Revolution- is framed by the philosophical considerations of the problems of good and evil, historical necessity vs. individual freedom, spiritual values as imminent rather than transcendant. Absolutely a must for the litterati. (Kirkus Reviews)
