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A review by cephaloverlord
The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book by Peter Finn
3.0
I read this to satisfy the spy theme on my bingo reading challenge for the year, but I'm not sure if it really does....maybe I was expecting a fiction thriller and that's not how the real world worked all the time. It was definitely fascinating how the CIA took interest in such a mundane book, but the themes were genuinely dangerous to communism.
I also think I would have enjoyed this more if I had read (or maybe even watched) Dr. Zhivago before reading this, as I would have understood everything that happens in the book. There is a great description of the book, but since it was my first exposure to the story, I only remembered bits and pieces as I read the rest of this and they regularly reference back to it.
Listening to this was also difficult because there were ALOT of people involved in this. A list of individuals and their general descriptions would have helped a lot! I had the same complaint about Game of Thrones and books like it, but those are easier to pull up a list of characters.
I also think I would have enjoyed this more if I had read (or maybe even watched) Dr. Zhivago before reading this, as I would have understood everything that happens in the book. There is a great description of the book, but since it was my first exposure to the story, I only remembered bits and pieces as I read the rest of this and they regularly reference back to it.
Listening to this was also difficult because there were ALOT of people involved in this. A list of individuals and their general descriptions would have helped a lot! I had the same complaint about Game of Thrones and books like it, but those are easier to pull up a list of characters.