The Secrets We Kept: A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick

3.5 stars is probably more accurate. Although a well-written and impressive debut novel about an interesting topic, I found I liked the book less and less as it progressed. The novel tells the story of the role played by the CIA in the publishing of the Russian novel "Dr. Zhivago" by Boris Pasternak. Because the novel was considered anti-Soviet in the 1950s, the manuscript had to be smuggled out of the Soviet Union in order to be published internationally. The CIA helped distribute the novel as part of the government's Cold War strategy (proven by documents released years later under the Freedom of Information Act). The novel is constructed as a series of chapters voiced by different characters. Some represent the West: women working in the CIA's typing pool or others who work as CIA operatives. The chapters representing the East are voiced by Olga, Boris' mistress and the woman who inspired the character of Lara in Dr. Zhivago. It is Olga who tells us the story of Boris's life (and hers) inside the Soviet Union -- as his novel begins to garner worldwide recognition which causes embarrassment to the Soviet government. The story of how the novel came to be published is an interesting one. As are the lives of Boris and Olga under Soviet rule -- with surveillance, harassment, ostracism, and even a few arrests. And I appreciated learning more about the U.S. role in distributing Dr. Zhivago and how clandestine operations are carried out. But I found some of the lesser story threads, much less compelling. And I found myself annoyed at times, struggling to determine who was "voicing" some of the chapters, when the author intentionally made that identification obscure.

I couldn't put it down. Set against the Mad Men culture of the CIA in Washington, and the grip of Stalinism and the Cold War following Stalin's death in the USSR, this is the story of undercover work and under the covers adventures of the men and women who made the publication of Boris Pasternak's novel Dr. Zhivago possible. Told in alternating chapters by women who kept the secrets in both Washington and Moscow's environs, it is both thrilling and heart breaking. One terrific read.