Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - The Master and Margarita

A spectacular addition to my "where'd the funny parts go?" heuristic in books chock-full of hilarity that become all the more poignant toward the end where the humor falls away and the true heart of the book comes forth. My Eastern European friends say it was never funny to begin with; the early Soviet happenings are simply too close to home.

I finished this half a year ago and am still thinking about it. This could be a 5-star book in time. Impossible not to recommend to anyone even remotely interested in fantasy/magical realism, religious fiction, and Russian/USSR fiction.

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emmi_lee's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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mateoj's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.25

delightfully weird. apparently I do really enjoy Russian lit, so long as each character has <5 names. talking cats never hurt either!

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elizlizabeth's review against another edition

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dark funny reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

Gorgeous edition, but honestly I'm dreading to ever have to re-read this. It felt like it was never going to end and I'm usually a fast reader.

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lisa_m's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

3.5

I finally did it! I finished The Master and Magarita! And I don't know what to say.
I 100% understand why people love this book. It has just been extremely tedious to read and I had to motivate myself a lot to get through it all.

The first 200 pages are basically just world building/ giving the readers all the knowledge they need in order to understand and enjoy the second half. It got really boring for me to the point where I would literally fall asleep after reading 3 pages (multiple times!!). I did not enjoy the first half. There were some very funny bits but most of it was exhausting.

Minor spoilers ahead

When I got to the second half though my opinion changed completely. I still think it's funny that the main protagonist (after whom the book is named!) Only appear halfway into the book. But as soon as we got to meet Magarita I started liking the book. I really enjoyed her character and story. Also the whole Satans Ball was super fun. I also finally felt like I understood Woland and the others.

The whole becoming a witch thing was entertaining and I finally understood why you need the first half because I wouldn't have understood anything in the second part if I hadn't read the first part.

Still I think it's ridiculous that you need to get through 200 pages(!!) to get to the really good part.

I want to give this book 4 stars but I really can't so 3.5 will have to do.

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bluejayreads's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75

Ever since I read Vita Nostra I’ve been chasing that high, looking for another book that’s a similar combination of incomprehensible and enthralling – or even a book that’s equally enthralling as that masterpiece. I picked up this book because I hoped that maybe another Russian novel about Satan’s hijinks in Moscow would be what I’ve been searching for.

It really wasn’t. It was well-written, to be sure, and interesting enough to finish, but it didn’t hold a candle to Vita Nostra. I’m not entirely sure anything will.

There isn’t a main cast in this story, unless you count Woland (the alias Satan took for his time in Moscow) and his entourage. The story follows many different characters showing all the different ways Woland and company mess with the people Moscow – usually by getting them arrested or sent to an insane asylum. It’s not entirely clear to me if Woland has a reason for being there or if he’s just there to cause chaos. I did enjoy his companions, especially the cat. They were all unique, well-drawn, and entertaining personalities.

This book wasn’t published in the author’s lifetime because the censors didn’t like its portrayal of life under the Stalinist regime. I don’t know enough about Russia, Russian culture and attitudes, and what Russia was like under Stalin to pick up on any of that. In fact, I felt like I didn’t really pick up on anything this book was trying to say. It’s one of those where I wish I had an English teacher telling me what I’m supposed to be seeing, like those magic eye pictures where it’s easier to find the hidden image if someone tells me what I’m looking for.

The plot itself is fairly comprehensible on a surface level. (The hardest part was keeping track of the names, because many of the characters had nicknames that did not at all relate to their names. There were several times where I was confused at the introduction of a new character only to realize later that I’d already met him under a different name.) I understood the what, but not the why. I can tell that there’s some other layer of meaning behind Woland tormenting Moscow, the story of the Master and his lover Margarita, and whatever Pontius Pilate had to do with anything, but I couldn’t figure out what. It was a good story, but I finished it feeling like I’d figured out what it was about but was completely missed what it means.

I enjoyed the story for itself. Once I figured out that the guy the story started with was not the actual protagonist, it was a lot of fun. But I wish I had read this in an English class or with a friend who was really into Russian literature or something, because there’s a lot more underneath the surface here that I just can’t grasp.

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allimoose37's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny mysterious slow-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I finished this book weeks ago and I still don't really know how I feel about it.

It's definitely Russian Literature and may be a difficult read. It is certainly slow paced in one sense and extremely fast in another. Part One of the novel feels very disjointed and each chapter is essentially a vignette, Part Two is more cohesive in the narrative, and I'm not certain Part One is edited down to it's best ability. This is a book about The Devil so be sure to check out any content warnings.

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