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joecam79's review
4.0
A biological experiment carried out by an eminent Moscow scientist goes horribly wrong and turns a likeable mongrel into an obnoxious human being and would-be follower of the Communist party. This novella reads like a satirical, darkly comic parody of Frankenstein. Like Shostakovich, Bulgakov kept an ambiguous relationship with the Soviet authorities. If his magnum opus The Master and Margarita were to be compared to one of Shostakovich's symphonies (the bleak 4th, perhaps, or the enigmatic 5th), Heart of a Dog would be one of the jazz or ballet suites - slighter, lighter but no less hard-hitting.
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