This novel received mixed reviews from my book club, but I thought it was fascinating. Sometimes a book just hits you, and for some reason, this one did.
There were two story lines. The first takes place in the 50's in Russia where we read about Boris Pasternak's lover, Lara. (Yes, the author was named after her!) Lara was captured and imprisoned by the Russian government in order to get information about Boris' novel, Dr. Zhivago, because it contains anti-Russian writings. The second story line happens in Washington DC, also in the 50's, at "the agency" which, I assume, is the CIA. A young woman in the typist pool is trained to be a spy, and later she and others secretly push copies of Dr. Zhivago into Russia where it is banned.
I'm definitely oversimplifying both stories, but they are related and yet very different. And I just enjoyed reading about how the spies were trained and what they were sent to do. I believe the information about Boris and his lover is factual; the DC portion of the book is based on documentation but the characters are fictional.
A few book club members found it to be slow and too long. OK, I'll go with that in parts. But I also found I really got into it about 1/3 of the way in. I say give it a try. -June
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