The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
REVIEW / 1
Like many of my #ayearofrussianlit chums, I have found it difficult to put a review of sorts down because there is a self-inflicted pressure to covey the justice I feel it deserves which I simply don’t have the talent to deliver. Instead, I will try and explain my emotional attachment to it.
Readers, do you ever feel an emotional reaction and a release of calm-driven endorphins when you settle down to a quiet moment of literary immersion? I felt that feeling every single time I snuggled down with this book in tow. Strangely, and I won’t say too much more, my cat 🐈⬛ almost always seemed to want to read it with me.
I am usually a person who likes to look up references within a text as I read but I promptly put a stop to that because the flow was too enjoyable a thing to ride upon and whilst there were sections in which I really had no idea what is going on it didn’t appear to ruin the overall meaning of the plot. In fact weirdly the randomness formed part of the allure. HOWEVER! Rabbit-holing will take place this weekend and a follow up reflection’s post will follow.
Sometimes a book grabs you. If I’d read it later in the year it might not have affected me in the way it did but for now, this book has to be one of the best I have ever read.
Books are Marmite. I love Marmite. This isn’t a book for everyone and whilst I’m in the LOVE gang I do recognise that it doesn’t always quite fit other people’s book palettes. I cannot even explain what it was about the book that I loved and I wish I could effectively describe the feeling I have about it because it’s that which has left a mark.
One little thing I always love with the Russian classics are the name drops of other writers. I don’t know why but it never ceases to make me smile.
A lot of ‘don’t know why’s’ here! 🤣
I’ll say no more for now but have a go with this one. It was utter magic!
To all my fellow readalong chums, thank you for creating such a warm, fun and positive space to share thoughts and feelings. Some of you are not quite finished and I hope you love every second of what remains. 🐈⬛👿🖤😍
I love this book! I am among the not quite finished, but this is a second read for me. It has such an Alice in Wonderland, Disney’s Haunted Mansion, Cinderella at the ball, Christmas Carol, fairy tale attraction for me that I can enjoy on a whole other level from the political, social and cultural rabbit hole that beckons. I am also reading Manuscripts Don’t Burn, letters and diaries of Bulgakov, and near the beginning is a letter from Bulgakov’s mother to his sister about being caught in the middle of a shootout in 1917 while trying to find out if another son is safe that tells me that things in the world have not changed very much. The cycles of human history seem inevitable.
I do have an emotional reaction not just because of the book but because I’m in love with idea of reading itself too. So I melt into it even before I’ve sat down. Thank you I’ve heard a lot about this book. So looking forward to reading it