"The Master & Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov

Mikhail Bulgakov, "The Master & Margarita", Alma Classics, 2012 (orig. pub. 1966-67), 4/5 stars

Mikhail Bulgakov's devastating satire of Soviet life was written during the darkest period of Stalin's regime. Combining two distinct yet interwoven parts - one set in ancient Jerusalem, one in contemporary Moscow - the novel veers from moods of wild theatricality with violent storms, vampire attacks & a Satanic ball; to such somber scenes as the meeting of Pilate & Yeshua, & the murder of Judas in the moonlit garden of Gethsemane; to the substanceless, circus-like reality of Moscow. Its central characters, Woland (Satan) & his retinue - including the vodka-drinking, black cat, Behemoth; the poet, Ivan Homeless; Pontius Pilate; & a writer known only as The Master, & his passionate companion, Margarita - exist in a world that blends fantasy & chilling realism, an artful collage of grotesqueries, dark comedy & timeless ethical questions. (Goodreads)

As you can probably sense from the synopsis above, this is a unique and fantastic story that requires quite a lot of focus from the reader, but in the end it rewards you with an amazing tale. I didn't know this when I first started reading. I had heard a lot about this book and it seemed to be on a lot of people's favourites lists, and that's why I eventually decided to pick it up and start reading.

First of all, the impression that sticks to me the most after having finished this fantastic tale is that I have never in my life been so confused and so fascinated at the same time while reading a book. I quickly realised that this is not an easy and relaxing book to read; you need to be very focused when picking up this story because you can easily get lost. I did oftentimes! But once you get into the story it is a masterpiece, and I love how Mikhail Bulgakov manages to weave everything together so perfectly! Some of the scenes in this book were breathtaking and made me forget everything about time and place; other scenes became too silly for my taste and I had a hard time taking them seriously. But the thing about this book is that even the silly scenes work, and Bulgakov manages to create a spectacular story that leaves you dumbfounded as well as slightly confused.

Another thing that I very much admired about this story is the fact that it comes with a lot of intertextuality. One of my favourite references was to Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina which I have a weak spot for, but the entire book in itself is a reference to the Bible combined with modern life in Moscow (during Stalin's regime). The mood of the book is very dark which connects very well with the overall connection to Moscow during that time, and I feel like Mikhael Bulgakov has captured the mood and the setting perfectly.

However, one of the things that I disliked about this book is the way that the narrator addresses the reader directly in several places. That's generally a feature that I'm not very fond of when it comes to fiction, and that's because it takes me out of the fictional world and kind of ruins the story for me. Furthermore, I disliked the fact that I was very much confused about 30% of the time and not in a good way. My reading experience became quite jumbled, and towards the end I had a difficult time picking up the book because it took so much energy out of me.

As you can probably sense from my descriptions above, I have some ambivalent feelings towards this story. My overall reading experience was rather mixed, but at the same time I really appreciated the way the story was told and the message that Mikhail Mulgakov conveys. In the end, I decided to rate it 4 stars and that's because even though this book confused be like never before, I feel like I'm never going to read anything as extraordinary and unique as this again - and for that alone it deserves 4 stars.