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friendofgosig 's review for:
The Master and Margarita
by Mikhail Bulgakov
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
This was a fascinating and clever account of life in Moscow under Stalin. I think it is a book that I could read many times and still find something new. It feels a little chaotic at the beginning, as mad things begin to happen, but it is important just to roll with every new action and development.
There is a central story, involving the master and his lover Margarita, but there are also lots of little episodes relating to the Devil’s activities in Moscow and particularly with the Variety Theatre. Bulgakov writes about the difficulty of being creative when every work is censored, and throughout the whole book there is the constant fear and even expectation of arrest, but presented in such a way as to make it seem normal.
This is an intriguing book, and having read other books written and set in Russia around the same time, I appreciated the lighthearted tone with which a very serious and important point was made.
There is a central story, involving the master and his lover Margarita, but there are also lots of little episodes relating to the Devil’s activities in Moscow and particularly with the Variety Theatre. Bulgakov writes about the difficulty of being creative when every work is censored, and throughout the whole book there is the constant fear and even expectation of arrest, but presented in such a way as to make it seem normal.
This is an intriguing book, and having read other books written and set in Russia around the same time, I appreciated the lighthearted tone with which a very serious and important point was made.