The Master and Margarita

Excellent. But, completely insane. Bulgakov's ability to interweave an account of Jesus's final hours from Pontius Pilate's point of view (as well as others), the devil and his henchmen's romp through Moscow, and a satire of Stalinist Russia is impressive. I still cannot account for the talent necessary to pull these seemingly disparate plot lines together without being forced. Frankly, when another book club member recommended this title, I rolled my eyes in mockery and despair. Now, I'm quite happy to have read “The Master and Margarita.”

There are elements of the fantastical that seemed like Shakespeare's “Midsummer Night's Dream,” as well as Lewis Carroll's “Alice in Wonderland.” Behemoth smacks of the Cheshire Cat. I'm unfortunately not familiar with Gogol, who I understand to be a major influence of Bulgakov's.

The scenes set during the sentencing, execution, and subsequent events of Jesus' crucifixion are relatively straight-forward and a pleasure to read, whereas the Muscovite sections of the nicely team with nonsense, violence, and seeming randomness. If only there was an entire novel written in this manner about Biblical occurrences. While these sections are excerpts from The Master's burned, then reborn, novel, the Master himself is but a shell. In some ways, it's hard to understand why Bulgakov's chose to name the novel after two characters who aren't as important as others.

Woland is a fascinating character. He stops (or walks away from) the violence and insanity caused by his crew when it goes overboard. He also is clearly not as powerful as another, higher bring, although it isn't clear whether that is God or another figure.