A review by jen_richardson19
Notes on the Cuff and Other Stories by Alison Rice, Mikhail Bulgakov

5.0

I could not have loved this book more. I had to brush up on my history of the Russian Civil war so that I could actually understand some of the specific events he narrates, especially those happening in his beloved Kiev. But the chaotic style of narration forced the reader to feel the utter chaos these citizens experienced from seemly endless violence and from constantly changing hands, as well as the hunger and desperation that defined the period. This would have been a very difficult and perhaps even pointless read without the footnotes, though, which explained/contextualized a lot of the fine-tuned cultural subtleties that so define Bulgakov's style (which would have otherwise been completely lost on me). I had to immediately go out and buy his novel The White Guard in hopes to find more of the same!