The book is almost impossible to read if you are not into it from the start. A lot of characters, a lot of descriptions and attention to small details, but a complicated narrative structure. I dare say that it is worth watching this adaptation before reading the book just in order to understand who is who and what the hell is going on. However, the book's strength is in the descriptive passages of how people lived and felt, to which the TV adaptation is but a shadow. They removed quite a lot and changed some things just to make it fit into a few hours.
It is also worth noting that Pasternak described all of these lives with a strong love for the people and their perspective and less because of a dislike for a particular system. It was cynical Westerners that used his book to embarrass the Soviets and resulted in much misery, the author's fate similar to the one of some of the characters he wrote.
As Woody Allen summarized a similar Russian work... It's about Russia.
It is also worth noting that Pasternak described all of these lives with a strong love for the people and their perspective and less because of a dislike for a particular system. It was cynical Westerners that used his book to embarrass the Soviets and resulted in much misery, the author's fate similar to the one of some of the characters he wrote.
As Woody Allen summarized a similar Russian work... It's about Russia.