By Lara Prescott
After WWII, women were told to go back to their homes and families after previously leading factories, corporations, and being covert operatives. In this book, we explore the typing pool at The Agency, where ladies with degrees and professional aspirations cooled their heels before getting their MRS. The Agency is the pre-CIA intelligence agency for the country. The premise is that these ladies knew all the secrets of the “powerful men” whom they took dictation for, without revealing any and keeping the country safe.
The typists are treated with chauvinistic condescension at every turn, but still provide some of the best spies, yes female ones, that the Agency is able to use during its Cold War efforts. Homosexuality is as socially accepted as women in power, so we are shown the brutality with which any “guilty” of it are treated, to our horror.
All of these themes are played out during the publication of Dr. Zhivago by Pasternak. We are taken through the horrors of the Soviet Union under Stalin and after his death through successors as well. Literary freedom does not exist and is not tolerated, with friends and family of “radical thinkers” sent to concentration and work camps for years to serve as examples to others.
I learned a lot from this book, was ashamed of our nation’s history multiple times throughout, and found better meaning and resonance from the suffering of those in the USSR during the Cold War. The narrative still didn’t quite pull me in and make me live the story however, hence the lower rating overall. The book was interesting, but unfortunately, average.
Soundtrack
- 9 to 5 by Dolly Parton
- Main Title Dr. Zhivago Soundtrack
- Lara’s Theme Dr. Zhivago Soundtrack
- Great Balls of Fire Jerry Lee Lewis
- All Shook Up by Elvis
- Bye Bye Love by The Everly Brothers