The Secrets We Kept

I wonder what author Lara Prescott's parents were thinking when they named her after the famed love interest of Dr. Zhivago. I doubt they ever dreamed that their daughter would pen a best-selling debut novel, already optioned for film, based upon another true story we never learned about in school. http://www.laraprescott.com/

I was only nine when Boris Pasternak's novel came out so it's only fair that I would have been unaware of the swirl of controversy surrounding it. I'm certain that few suspected that the CIA was involved in making sure that the book was smuggled back into Russia, where it had been banned, so that ordinary Russian citizens could get a glimpse into life in the gulag and maybe, just maybe, foment a revolution. This is the fascinating story of how that happened.

Prescott sets her novel in the typing pool, one of the few places women were allowed to work, in the newly formed spy agency born out of World War II's OSS. She knows DC backwards and forwards and paints a vivid picture of what it was like for these women, newly freed from the conventions of marriage and parenting, working and playing among the men and admonished not to remember anything they typed - ha!


The story toggles back and forth between East and West and multiple viewpoints, a technique that will keep you on your toes. In Russia, Pasternak's lover, Olga, tells of life as the other woman, living in a small home not far from his much larger one that he shares with his wife. As with many life-long affairs of this kind, Olga is the one who suffers, often at odds with her children and her mother, and even spending time in prison for her relationship to the disgraced writer.

In Washington, a Russian immigrant named Irina catches the eyes of the typists when she is singled out for special treatment after only a small time on the job. How she is trained under the tutelage of an experienced female spy (named Sally) and sent into the Georgetown soirees to mingle and listen, is great fun even if it does feel much less sinister than some of the actual activities the CIA was involved in at the time. https://nyti.ms/2kaBLTU

"The Secrets We Kept" is high quality, fast-paced entertainment set in a Washington, DC, and a Russia that seem almost innocent when compared to what we read when we open our papers today. Yet Prescott raises some interesting questions about the nature of literature as a means for change, and the sacrifices made to get the word in the hands of the people. Boris may come across as stubborn and selfish, his wife, fearful, and Olga, both brave and foolish. Nevertheless, I see "Doctor Zhivago" now in an entirely different light. Yup, I just placed it on hold.