I have now finished the book; while I am pleased to have read it, I am not so sure that I can say that I found it a very rewarding read. That, in part and as I mentioned, may be the translation. The second half of the book flowed better for me but still struck me as seeming to concentrate more on being a technical translation rather than nicety of prose. Yuri's poems I gave up on, it is not often translated poems work well (plus I have an aversion to many poem types, that being my fault
)
I wonder if Russians really did speak in several page long monologues during private conversations and if so did their listener's attention drift away as mine did? The few Russians I have spoken to have seemed to be quite more to the point (but modern Russians, of course).
One thing I did get out of it was additional evidence of how we in nations are molded by our histories (or in my own country's case, lack of it). While I had a splattering of Russian history and read a little of Solzhenitsyn's work (which is focused on a particular aspect of history),
Dr Zhivago although a historical novel traveled over a period of great molding of the nation and, to me, contributed very much to the current character of it.
I think it could stand a second reading but I am not sure that I would be up to it; if I were to do so I think I would give the earlier translation a go. Wife and I still have the 3 hour movie to watch.