Doctor Zhivago Part 13: Opposite the House with Figures Summary

Part 13, Chapter 1

• The fighting in Yuriatin has died down, and the Whites are gone. The only ones left are the Red Communists.
• There's an announcement pasted all over town saying that people found without "work booklets" will be severely punished. In other words, you might get yourself shot if you're unemployed. In Communist Russia, everyone has to work… or else.

Part 13, Chapter 2

• The narrator tells us that a wild-looking, filthy man with a sack on his back is entering Yuriatin. And who might it be but Doctor Yuri Zhivago, who's just hiked hundreds of miles through the forest to reach Yuriatin.
• During his hike, Zhivago saw the young Galuzin kid sneak out of a train car. This seems impossible, since Galuzin was executed by a firing squad. But it turns out that the shot that hit him wasn't lethal, and he just played dead until the executioners went away.
• Zhivago checks out the posters all over the city to make sure he doesn't break any rules that'll get him killed.
• Zhivago also goes to Lara's house to see if she's still in town. He can't tell whether new tenants have taken over her place.
• While he's inspecting around their front door, Zhivago finds a little note in a nearby hole in the house's stone. The note says that Lara has already heard about him getting back, and she has travelled to Varykino, assuming that Zhivago has gone there.
• In any case, the note tells Zhivago to wait for Lara at the house until she gets back, which she will do soon enough.
• Zhivago finds it strange that Lara would mention nothing about the danger his family is in, but he only reads one side of the note, not realizing that there's more on the other side.

Part 13, Chapter 3

• As he goes around Yuriatin reading pamphlets and posters, Zhivago finds it strange that the Communist government is still blaming the country's problems on capitalists and greedy merchants, even though these people have been completely wiped out. It looks like Communism doesn't work all that well without having capitalism as its scapegoat.

Part 13, Chapter 4

• Taking a key that Lara has left him, Zhivago goes into her apartment. He can hear right away that there are tons of rats running around in the kitchen.
• Before settling down to sleep for the night, Zhivago makes sure to get into a room and plug all the holes so that no rats will get in.
• Finding himself in Lara's space, he feels a level of energy and excitement that he never had during his long march to Yuriatin.
• Before Lara gets back, he wants to get his hair and beard shaved. So with that in mind, he walks past some of the places that used to be barbershops in the city. Some are empty or closed down. Others are locked up.
• Zhivago's determined to look good for Lara, though, so he goes to a sewing shop to see if he can find some scissors.

Part 13, Chapter 5

• Zhivago goes to the sewing shop and tries to get in. But the people think he's some sort of homeless maniac and won't let him. Undiscouraged, he goes around to the back entrance and knocks there.

Part 13, Chapter 6

• An elderly seamstress opens the sewing shop's back door. She looks Zhivago up and down and asks him what he wants.
• Zhivago tells her that he's just looking for some scissors to cut his hair. The seamstress, though, still thinks he's a crazy man. Worse yet, she's worried that he's some sort of criminal trying to change his looks.
• Zhivago tells her a fake story about how he got stuck out in Siberia and had to walk back to Yuriatin.
• The woman leaves and returns with a razor, getting ready to shave him, too. While shaving him, she warns him not to talk too much about himself and what he does. Nowadays, it's best to talk as little as possible.
• The seamstress talks for a bit about Strelnikov and Lara, even though she doesn't name them. Zhivago realizes that she must have some sort of connection to Strelnikov.
• The seamstress goes on and on about how much the Communists are cracking down on any freedom of speech and throwing people in jail for the slightest suspicions.
• As she goes on, Zhivago realizes that this seamstress is actually Liberius's aunt! Talk about a small world, especially when you consider how humongous Russia is.
• The seamstress starts talking about Liberius but breaks off because she's finished with Zhivago's shave.
• From the seamstress, Zhivago finds out that his family was able to make it out of Varykino without being killed by the marauders. She says that the father of this family (Zhivago himself) went missing years ago and is presumed dead. Zhivago just nods.
• Finally, Zhivago finds out that his family has actually moved back to Moscow.
• Ouch. That's a lot more walking.

Part 13, Chapter 7

• Zhivago is walking back up the steps of Lara's apartment, unable to believe that his family has gone back to Moscow.
• One more time, he fills the holes in the bedroom walls with broken glass to kill the rats that try to get in.
• Resting, Zhivago thinks about the unborn child he left Tonya with. He wonders what this child is like and how Tonya is managing to raise him or her.
• Then Zhivago starts thinking about all the times he's been in this very bedroom with Lara. How's that for husbandly devotion?
• Zhivago takes out Lara's note again, and only now does he realize that there's more written on the back of it than he first saw. Lara tells him that his family is safe in Moscow and that Tonya gave birth to a daughter.

Part 13, Chapter 8

• Zhivago has a nightmare about his son begging him to save him from drowning. But Zhivago can't (or won't) do it. Zhivago wakes up in a sweat, feeling like he's abandoned his family.
• Sweating, he realizes that he must have some sort of fever.
• The next time Zhivago falls asleep, he dreams about Lara.

Part 13, Chapter 9

• Alone in Lara's apartment, Zhivago cries to himself. He worries that he has a fever that will eventually kill him. And being a doctor, he might be right.
• In the morning, Zhivago doesn't have the strength to get up. He wonders how many days or hours he's been lying in bed.
• At one point, he feels like he can hear human voices nearby, and he decides that he's going mad.
• But then Zhivago realizes that he isn't dreaming, and that his clothes have been changed. Lara is right there beside him, crying with him and leaning over him.
• Zhivago faints from happiness.

Part 13, Chapter 10

• Lara nurses Zhivago back to health, and their love for each other only grows as this happens. 'Nuff said.

Part 13, Chapter 11

• Lara tells Zhivago that she won't keep him for a day more than she has to. He has to go to his family in Moscow. But then again, she decides that he doesn't look like he's healthy enough to make the journey. Ain't that convenient?
• Lara also informs Zhivago that things aren't looking good for the two of them. Now that the Soviets have won the war, they're doing away with people like Strelnikov and everyone connected to him—like Lara. As a guy who deserted the Forest Brotherhood, Zhivago's status isn't all that great these days, either.
• Lara also tells Zhivago that she's still very much in love with her husband, even though it's been over five years since they spoke face to face.
• Lara was present when Tonya gave birth to Zhivago's daughter, too. It turns out that Lara and Tonya grew close while he was away. Uh, awkward, anyone?
• First things first. Lara and Zhivago are going to have to find work if they're going to stay out of trouble with the authorities.

Part 13, Chapter 12

• Zhivago asks Lara to tell him about his new daughter. Her name is Masha, in honor of Zhivago's mother.
• Lara also mentions that the local dude named Anfim Efimovich has been helping her out with firewood and food during the winter months. Zhivago gets jealous, though, because he suspects that Anfim wants something in return.
• Lara promises Zhivago that there's nothing romantic going on between her and Anfim. She admits, though, that she did have an affair with an older man when she was younger. With this, she tells him the story of her affair with her mother's lover, Komarovsky, when she was just a teenager.
• Zhivago admits that this news crushes him, but he also knows that he wouldn't love Lara so much if her past weren't a part of her. He loves all the good and all the bad.
• Zhivago can actually remember the first time he saw Lara outside her mother's bedroom after her mother tried to poison herself. He suspects—correctly—that it was news of Lara's affair that drove her mother to do this.
• Worse yet, this Komarovsky guy is the same man who got Zhivago's dad drunk and drove him to kill himself by jumping out of a moving train.

Part 13, Chapter 13

• Zhivago wants Lara to tell him more about her husband, Pasha Antipov. She tells him about how Pasha used to be and about how he changed after he first heard the story of Lara's affair with Komarovsky. She tells Zhivago all about moving to Yuriatin and Pasha's sudden decision to leave for the war, as well as his disappearance and return as Strelnikov.
• Most of this story is made up of stuff we've already been able to put together as readers.

Part 13, Chapter 14

• Lara confesses to Zhivago that if she had a chance to be Antipov's wife again, she'd crawl on her knees to achieve it. Let's remember that she's saying this to her lover.
• Lara explains that the reason her husband left her in the first place is that he became obsessed and tortured by his own mediocrity. He left for the war so he could distinguish himself and be worthy of his family. He did it to stop being a burden on them with his averageness.
• Lara wishes that she could have saved Pasha from his silly ambition, since she doesn't care if he's normal. She wants him normal.

Part 13, Chapter 15

• Summer comes and goes, and Zhivago eventually recovers from his fever. Russian currency continues to be worth less and less, so Zhivago has to juggle several jobs just to stay afloat.
• Zhivago and Lara, working together and living as man and wife, manage to get by. He never gets used to the fact that his actual family is living in Moscow.

Part 13, Chapter 16

• One day, Zhivago comes home and says he'll have to quit his main job. He can't stand that way that people talk and how they constantly try to get him to speak about how glorious Communism is.
• Zhivago's worried that one of these days, he's going to be arrested. Things are tightening up, and the new Communist government is constantly seeking out new enemies to define itself against.
• Only a few days later, Lara tells Zhivago that she's heard on good authority that the two of them will be arrested very soon. She thinks it's a good idea if the two of them retreat from public view and go live in the deserted village of Varykino.
• Zhivago finds this strange, since Lara has also been telling him to go back to his family in Moscow. He asks Lara if she'll go to Moscow with him so they can all be together with his family. As you can imagine, she thinks this is an insane idea.
• Zhivago and Lara decide that they need to make plans for Lara's daughter Katenka in case the worst happens, and they both get arrested. They decide to put Katenka into the care of a friend named Sima.

Part 13, Chapter 17

• Zhivago checks out the train station to see if he can catch a ride to Moscow, but it looks like the trains aren't moving at all.
• When Zhivago gets home, he overhears Lara having a religious conversation with her friend Sima.

Part 13, Chapter 18

• While Lara and Sima talk about religion in the next room, Zhivago uses his free time to catch up on sleeping.
• The doorbell rings, and minutes later, Zhivago finds out that he's received a letter… from his wife Tonya in Moscow. She knows where he is—and that he's living with Lara!
• Tonya tells Zhivago that he has a daughter, which he already knows. What he doesn't know is that Tonya, her father, and her children are all being deported from Russia. It's actually a pretty good break, considering that their other option was execution.
• Tonya laments about how much she loves Zhivago and how little he loves her back. For Zhivago, this isn't true, but it's hard to make that argument when you're living with another woman.
• Tonya says that they are probably going to move to Paris once they're deported. She also mentions how she became close with Lara before moving from the Urals. She says that she thinks Lara is a good person.
• Zhivago suddenly feels a pain in his chest. He stumbles toward the couch but collapses before he can reach it.