PositiveThe Washington PostLara can be erratic for the first 50 pages, as it sets up short backgrounds of the Pasternak and Ivinskaya families, only to reset the timeline in the next chapter. This pace may be especially disorienting to readers unfamiliar with Soviet history, since the book covers the impact of events such as Stalin’s purges and collectivization efforts on the Moscow literati scene. After its hectic exposition, the book excels as it chronicles the private tension between two lovers saddled with other families, and the wider antagonism between Pasternak and the Kremlin ... Given its setting, Lara could have easily devolved into a melodramatic saga of ill-fated passion in a time of tyranny. Instead, Anna Pasternak admirably refuses to reduce the lovers to stock tragic figures. She presents a warts-and-all, at times scathing portrait of the pair ... The ominous ease with which one of history’s most brutal dictators can get a second chance at a legacy makes Lara — the story of one of Stalin’s innumerable victims — a particularly poignant book.
