Jaclyn’s Review: The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott

The Secrets We Kept
written by Lara Prescott
published by Knopf, 2019

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Apple Books, Target, Walmart, Kobo, Book Depository, Goodreads

Did I enjoy this book? I really struggled with this book. This was a Reese Witherspoon book club book, so I was instantly drawn to it. Unfortunately, I didn’t pay enough attention to the book synopsis before starting to read it. The Cold War era is not an area of interest for me, so this book started off at a disadvantage. Additionally, I thought this book was going to be told from the point of view of the CIA typists (Chapter 1 of the book), but they are actually very rarely mentioned in this book. The story is actually about the women who were instrumental in the writing, publication, and distribution of Doctor Zhivago. I thought the book had a very slow start, and I didn’t really get into the story until more than halfway through. I did like that the story was told almost entirely from a female perspective, especially in an era when women were not prominent in these industries. I also liked how the author continued to uncover multiple layers of “secrets” that each character maintained. I think this was a well-written, albeit slow, story, and my biggest issue with it was my own doing.

Would I recommend it? If you are a fan of this era in American history, this would be an amazing book to read. I think the author is clearly a great writer, but that was simply not enough to salvage this book for me. This was not my favorite book, and I’m just not sure I would recommend it.
 

 

About the book – from Goodreads: A thrilling tale of secretaries turned spies, of love and duty, and of sacrifice—inspired by the true story of the CIA plot to infiltrate the hearts and minds of Soviet Russia, not with propaganda, but with the greatest love story of the twentieth century: Doctor Zhivago.

At the height of the Cold War, two secretaries are pulled out of the typing pool at the CIA and given the assignment of a lifetime. Their mission: to smuggle Doctor Zhivago out of the USSR, where no one dare publish it, and help Pasternak’s magnum opus make its way into print around the world. Glamorous and sophisticated Sally Forrester is a seasoned spy who has honed her gift for deceit all over the world–using her magnetism and charm to pry secrets out of powerful men. Irina is a complete novice, and under Sally’s tutelage quickly learns how to blend in, make drops, and invisibly ferry classified documents.

The Secrets We Kept combines a legendary literary love story—the decades-long affair between Pasternak and his mistress and muse, Olga Ivinskaya, who was sent to the Gulag and inspired Zhivago’s heroine, Lara—with a narrative about two women empowered to lead lives of extraordinary intrigue and risk. From Pasternak’s country estate outside Moscow to the brutalities of the Gulag, from Washington, D.C. to Paris and Milan, The Secrets We Kept captures a watershed moment in the history of literature—told with soaring emotional intensity and captivating historical detail. And at the center of this unforgettable debut is the powerful belief that a piece of art can change the world.

 

 
 

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** This post first appeared on Every Free Chance Books (everyfreechance.com) on October 8, 2019.