Pasternak had originally wanted to call the novel There Will Be No Death but changed the title. However, the original title expresses at once the way in which the novel addresses utopian ideas and the author's religious beliefs.

It's not just an anti-utopian novel, though. There's a love story (something that the movie brought to the forefront), allegories to real people and ideas and poetry.

Rather than breaking the discussion down into smaller units, I'd like to just ask anyone who read the novel to express their initial thoughts (what they liked, what they didn't, etc.) and ask questions about parts that didn't seem to make sense or which they found problematic, and we can let the discussion go from there. Having read a lot of the literary criticism surrounding the book, it may be that I am able to at least say what people think certain things meant. Then again, I may not.