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jenkepesh 's review for:
The Master and Margarita
by Mikhail Bulgakov
This is a book that my daughter and her boyfriend gave to me for Christmas. It is a book that demands slow reading, though it moves quickly and antically. Bulgakov wrote this around 1940, but in Stalinist Russia, he knew it would not be published and that he'd get in trouble for writing it, so he left instructions to not publish it. Eventually (early 1960s), it was published, and has been translated into many languages, and I am amazed that it is both extremely clear in English and that it comes across as completely Russian.
At the moment, I can't remember a book that was so evocative of other arts as The Master and Margarita. Bulgakov brings supernatural beings into (his) present-day Moscow and has them interact with normal Muscovites. A giant cat, a harlequin, a foreign magician and others, all part of the same cadre, have come for no apparent reason, and set about their business by summarily ridding their environment of everything that would get in their way--causing citizens to flee, or magically sending them to far-off cities, or setting them up to be arrested or put in a mental institution, or even to die from some hideous accident. Thus, they acquire a nice apartment, are able to book a theater for a special performance, can escape consequences of their various pranks. They are invariably cheerful, even when menacing. They are often madcap. Throughout the novel, I was reminded of the surrealism of Chagall, the folk/military/dissonant/showtune style of Prokofiev and Shostakovich, of the folk tales and folk art depicting chickens and clowns and all sorts of other bright beings that often seem to contain a hint of menace beneath their garish colors. These are all part of the aura of the infernal visitors, even when they seem to be speaking reasonably. The chaos they casually instantiate is unfathomable to the regular Muscovites--a debate about the existence of Jesus Christ leads to a decapitation, a question about a contract leads to a man's suit taking over his bureaucratic job, women offered the chance to shop for beautiful clothes wear them only until they are in the street, where they are left in their shabby underwear. Sometimes, a citizen's greed or other vice entices him or her into a shaming or damning punishment. Other times, the citizen is upright but hapless and helpless before the invaders.
And none of these characters is the Master or Margarita of the title. The Master writes and abandons a story, decides to commit himself to a mental institution, disappearing without telling anyone where he has gone. His lover Margarita is willing to do anything to find him again, and so contracts with the infernal visitors. For unclear reasons, the Master's story has drawn these visitors to Moscow. The story is parceled out throughout the book, and is the story of Christ's crucifixion from the perspectives of others in the famous tale. At the beginning of the book, Christ is asserted to be not only a fiction but a terrible character. Within the Master's story, Christ is something of a fool. But near the end of the book, Christ appears for only a moment, almost as a neighbor or cousin to one of the infernal visitors, and makes a simple request on behalf of the Master and Margarita, then leaves. The request is granted, not on a whim, but clearly because Woland/Satan is compelled to do as Christ would have him do. So the atheistic state of Russia that scoffs at the idea of God and Christ is invaded by satanic forces, only to be released through the reviled Christ, in a moment that no human in Moscow witnesses.
The Master and Margarita is sumptuous, silly, scary, sly, playful, dead serious. It is a grand book to read. But it is not a light book.
At the moment, I can't remember a book that was so evocative of other arts as The Master and Margarita. Bulgakov brings supernatural beings into (his) present-day Moscow and has them interact with normal Muscovites. A giant cat, a harlequin, a foreign magician and others, all part of the same cadre, have come for no apparent reason, and set about their business by summarily ridding their environment of everything that would get in their way--causing citizens to flee, or magically sending them to far-off cities, or setting them up to be arrested or put in a mental institution, or even to die from some hideous accident. Thus, they acquire a nice apartment, are able to book a theater for a special performance, can escape consequences of their various pranks. They are invariably cheerful, even when menacing. They are often madcap. Throughout the novel, I was reminded of the surrealism of Chagall, the folk/military/dissonant/showtune style of Prokofiev and Shostakovich, of the folk tales and folk art depicting chickens and clowns and all sorts of other bright beings that often seem to contain a hint of menace beneath their garish colors. These are all part of the aura of the infernal visitors, even when they seem to be speaking reasonably. The chaos they casually instantiate is unfathomable to the regular Muscovites--a debate about the existence of Jesus Christ leads to a decapitation, a question about a contract leads to a man's suit taking over his bureaucratic job, women offered the chance to shop for beautiful clothes wear them only until they are in the street, where they are left in their shabby underwear. Sometimes, a citizen's greed or other vice entices him or her into a shaming or damning punishment. Other times, the citizen is upright but hapless and helpless before the invaders.
And none of these characters is the Master or Margarita of the title. The Master writes and abandons a story, decides to commit himself to a mental institution, disappearing without telling anyone where he has gone. His lover Margarita is willing to do anything to find him again, and so contracts with the infernal visitors. For unclear reasons, the Master's story has drawn these visitors to Moscow. The story is parceled out throughout the book, and is the story of Christ's crucifixion from the perspectives of others in the famous tale. At the beginning of the book, Christ is asserted to be not only a fiction but a terrible character. Within the Master's story, Christ is something of a fool. But near the end of the book, Christ appears for only a moment, almost as a neighbor or cousin to one of the infernal visitors, and makes a simple request on behalf of the Master and Margarita, then leaves. The request is granted, not on a whim, but clearly because Woland/Satan is compelled to do as Christ would have him do. So the atheistic state of Russia that scoffs at the idea of God and Christ is invaded by satanic forces, only to be released through the reviled Christ, in a moment that no human in Moscow witnesses.
The Master and Margarita is sumptuous, silly, scary, sly, playful, dead serious. It is a grand book to read. But it is not a light book.