The Russian Revolution told as a Soap Opera

On the way home from school Timothy announces they were watching the movie Dr. Zhivago in class. Now, Joe and I happen to really like that movie; during the early years of our marriage we watched it every winter. We'd pick an especially cold weekend night, one in which there was snow or, at least the threat of snow, and sitting before a cracking fire we'd watch the movie.

But Timothy doesn't know this so he proceeds to catch me up to speed.

"The movie starts just before the Russian Revolution, but right now there is this older guy named Victor who has a mistress, but then he seduces Lara who is the mistress' daughter. How messed up is that? Then there is Pasha, who is a revolutionary, and Yuri--that's Dr. Zhivago, by the way--marries his cousin, Tanya. But that Victor, he's a weasel," Timothy explains.

It makes me laugh how he manages to make Boris Pasternak's classic novel (which was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature) sound like a daytime soap opera.

"It gets better," I assure him. "You must be getting ready to read something about the Russian Revolution."

"Yup," he says. "We are going to start Animal Farm next week."

I mention that George Orwell's book, Animal Farm, reflects the events leading up to the Russian Revolution and that the author was a critic of Joseph Stalin. But then, knowing Timothy, I laugh again.

"Oh, you're going to hate that novel," I said. "It's an allegory, so you are going to have to do a lot of interpretation and reading between the lines."

"Oh my gosh!" Timothy grumbles. "Why can't we read a nonfiction book? Why can't they just tell the story in a normal way?"

Sigh. I'm working on him. I'm just glad he reads, even if his material of choice includes facts, science, charts, and what he calls "real stuff." Right now on his nightstand is a THICK book entitled, World Heritage Sites, and every night he reads about Unesco sites such as the mausoleum of the first Qin Emperor in China, the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, or the Abbey of St. Gall in Switzerland.

When we get home, he's still complaining. But then two things happen:

1/ I show him a Washington Post article about how the CIA used the book, Dr. Zhivago, as a tool during the Cold War to undermine the Soviet Union, and

2/ Timothy's monthly National Geographic arrives in the mail.

And just like that, all is right with the Literary World.