It's an ancient story that has been recorded since the beginning of time: a man declares his undying affection to someone other than his wife and she believes herself to be more than just "the other woman". It's a recipe for disaster and that is exactly what ensued when Boris Pasternak, author of the world-renowned DR. ZHIVAGO, left his first wife for the second but refused to leave the second wife for his mistress, Olga Ivinskaya. Pasternak continues to proclaim until his death that he loves Olga more than any other. Perhaps genius and narcissism go hand in hand in many instances but witnessing someone sacrifice the person they claim to love is difficult. The author, Anna Pasternak (great, great-niece of Boris), declares in her closing statement that she does not believe Boris used Olga but that he truly loved her. My conclusion is that he loved himself above all others, including Olga. Of course, Olga allowed herself to be in the position of mistress never able to sacrifice the relationship with Boris. All of this personal drama, in fact, finds its way to the pages of DR. ZHIVAGO where Boris's Olga becomes the main female character, Lara.
Just as the book DR. ZHIVAGO contains copious amounts of Russian history and political intrigue, so does the book LARA: THE UNTOLD LOVE STORY AND INSPIRATION FOR DR. ZHIVAGO. The author shares personal and public correspondence, personal messages written on the flyleaf of books that Boris gifted to Olga, newspaper articles, political documents, and notes from personal conversations with family members. As the author is herself a distant family member, I am sure there is a certain amount of bias in her observations; she does impose her personal opinion at times in the telling of the story. I think this is to be expected and I did not find it distasteful or distracting.
Personally, I enjoyed the detail given to Pasternak's writing routines and I admired his dedication to "write the story" at all costs. My heart went out to Olga while at the same time I was angry at her for allowing herself to remain in a relationship where she suffered both emotionally, physically, and mentally for a man who would not elevate her by giving her his name and making her his wife. His unwillingness to do so meant that she suffered greatly on two different occasions when she was imprisoned by the Russian government and sent to the Gulags for the crime of aiding Boris Pasternak in writing and publishing DR. ZHIVAGO. Since the government did not dare to punish Pasternak directly, they pushed back by hurting the person who meant the most to him but who was not protected by marital status.
I found the book LARA: THE UNTOLD LOVE STORY AND INSPIRATION FOR DR. ZHIVAGO to be an interesting and enlightening read and gave it four stars on Goodreads. I listened to the audiobook version which I borrowed through my Libby app.