A review by anesh
The Master and Margarita / Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov

While Crowley was contemplating the world with Aziraphale, the Devil was having a ball in Moscow. I feel like this is a novel you either completely love or simply admire for its complexity, witty and sly humor as commentary to the times and poetic prose. I'm all in for using Satan as a subterfuge for painting the spirit of humanity, but I think I might have perhaps enjoyed it more were I more familiar with the context of the era. We all know in broad what the times were like, but Bulgakov's writing feels more intimate and many of the insinuated details in the novel have escaped me completely, I'm afraid. Also, because this is a novel where you have no hero and there are many events happening at once as they converge towards the conclusion of the story, you don't really have the time to get attached to any of the characters. For some that might not be a problem, for me, I find that it can make me get attached to a story a lot easier and it also makes me understand it better. I was, of course, drawn to the three knights of chaos, Koroviev, Behemoth and Azazello (as translated in Romanian), who were truly the epitome of the satirical spirit of the novel. With that being said, did you know that they made a Russian mini-series of this novel? I think I might have to check that out.