It is indeed an impressive novel, although the Dutch translation I read was horrible - dated, but even in the sixties it must've been flawed. Old-fashioned and formal language making everything extremely stiff - or rather, not everything, sometimes there'd be radical changes in tone mid-conversation or mid-paragraph. I considered switching to English or French halfway, but couldn't find a copy easily, so I just finished it anyway and kept telling myself "this isn't Pasternak's fault". Perhaps that one thing I mentioned to you back when I started it, Tom, with the changing time and place mid-paragraph, was also due to the translation (fortunately I haven't reallly come across any further instances of that).

I read a number of posts of the discussion, and the analogies of the women make sense. Still, the way Zhivago leaves Lara bothers me. While part of me can see both the external reasons (as in, why Pasternak would want him to do it, with the analogies you explain and all) and the internal reasons to some extent (Zhivago didn't want to be beholden to Komarovski in any way), I still don't think there's sufficient justification as far as the internal reasons go. It's not that I don't find it credible that he makes that decision, but I do blame him for it, and think less of him for it. He has not just one, but two families, and decides to abandon both for what are in the end selfish reasons. He does no better in that regard than Strelnikov, even if Lara for some reason seems to admire it in Strelnikov, and probably in Zhivago too, as is hinted at in the final chapters when she appears again.

Definitely a good start to the Russian Book Club, though, because even without seeing the subtle connections to other famous books that you and Greg mention, Pasternak explicitly mentions a ton of authors and important figures in Russian culture and history, as well as touching upon a lot of themes somewhere along the way. I'm sorry I got to the fun so late, but perhaps I can provoke a little more discussion, even if that discussion consists of Tom reproaching me for being a hopeless romantic or a naive reader too much influenced by the movie.