The recent appearance of this novel on a Facebook friend’s Top 10 prompted me to finally take it off the shelf. Years ago, I saw a stage adaptation of the novel by the Lookingglass Theatre Company of Chicago and I remember thinking that it was. . . strange (http://lookingglasstheatre.org/event_page/the-master-and-margarita/).
And so it took me a while to get up the courage to read the book. And I finally did and it was. . .
strange.
But strange in a good way, in an ahead-of-its-time funny kind of way. I mean this was Magical Realism before Marquez et al came on the scene, no?
With a limited understanding of context, I think I ended up with a limited understanding of the method behind Bulgakov’s madness. Still, the closing images of Pontius Pilate were profound, even for me.
I’d like to see the play again.
I love this book. “Black Snow’ is great too, and not quite so ….strange, as you put it.
Thanks. You would use another word, perhaps?
Stimulating? Exhilaratingly iconoclastic?
I’ll accept “exhilaratingly iconoclastic.” I’d even add “evocative.”
“Black Snow” is a satire about the theatre with a very funny attack on Stanislavski – Bulgakov thought he was a charlatan.
Cool. Maybe then. I like theatre and have always had my questions about Stanislavski.