Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - The Master and Margarita

Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

29 reviews

bokslukaren's review against another edition

challenging medium-paced

2.0

The writing stood out to me at once - both modern and classic. There were chapters where I was completely inside the book, and others where I was completely lost, and still others where I felt personally pointed out and wondered “is it talking to me?”. It's worth mentioning that I would've enjoyed the book more if it had embraced and developed the horror themes. Behemoth was my absolute favourite, so much that I'm naming my newly adopted cat after him. This was an entirely surrealistic experience which at times felt like an incomprehensible fever dream - I'm a firm believer that those who understand everything in this book are lying and that Bulgakow’s satire is really poking fun at the readers who are pretending to understand. I've got no experience whatsoever when it comes to Russian culture and Russian names, which made my head a complete mess while reading this. No, I did not know whom Bulgakow was referring to at any given time, but I should've taken some responsibility and written the names down at least. The only reason I didn't DNF was because I was hoping that I would understand when I finished it, but alas.

Content Warnings

jinglelocks's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Content Warnings

kmhst25's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

1.5

While the first sections are extremely promising, the book ultimately devolves into male fantasies and fever dreams. I don't know how anyone can take this novel seriously. For example:

There is one main female character, and she is naked for more than half of all of her appearances.
There is one secondary female character, and she is naked for all of her appearances.
In fact, most of the background women in the book are also naked. Female nudity is basically a theme. Theoretically, a lot of it can be explained by the association of witches with nudity, but there are so many non-witch naked women floating around that that explanation proves flimsy.
The "Master" is a man who writes one novel that his (barely fleshed out) lover reveres so much that she only calls him Master from then on, and he adopts the name as his own. (He still calls her by her name though, and her defining characteristics are that she's beautiful and that she's devoted to him.) If anyone asks him who he is, he only says, "I'm the Master." The Master conveniently shares several traits and life experiences with the author of this book.
Later in the novel, it becomes clear that some of the chapters that we have been reading are actually excerpts from the Master's brillaint masterpiece. So not only is he similar to the book's author, but the book's author decides that he is also qualified to write the Master's genius work.

Need I go on?

Content Warnings