As I enjoy reading very much and I'm probably not alone here, I thought a book recommendation thread would be a great idea. We could give each other some good ideas on choosing our next literary trip, could we not? So, go on - recommend a book that is really really good in Your opinion. These kind of threads have a tendency to end up being flooded with endless lists of recommendations, so please this time - one book only! Something that You love! If by this You really feel like I've raped You, make it more, but please try not to post more than three, so that each book in this thread gets the deserved attention and is treated like an individual, instead of getting lost in rows and rows of names and titles. It would be very nice if You wrote down some personal thoughts about the book, what's it about, what makes it so special to You etc. I'm really looking forward to learning about some fantastic books here to read in the long winter nights...

O.K. I'll start. My recommendation:

The Master and Margarita
by Mikhail Bulgakov


Look inside this book

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An audacious revision of the stories of Faust and Pontius Pilate, The Master and Margarita is recognized as one of the essential classics of modern Russian literature. The novel's vision of Soviet life in the 1930s is so ferociously accurate that it could not be published during its author's lifetime and appeared only in a censored edition in the 1960's. Its truths are so enduring that its language has become part of the common Russian speech.

One hot spring, the devil arrives in Moscow, accompanied by a retinue that includes a beautiful naked witch and an immense talking black cat with a fondness for chess and vodka. The visitors quickly wreak havoc in a city that refuses to believe in either God or Satan. But they also bring peace to two unhappy Muscovites: one is the Master, a writer pilloried for daring to write a novel about Christ and Pontius Pilate; the other is Margarita, who loves the Master so deeply that she is willing literally to go to hell for him. What ensues is a novel of inexhaustible energy, humor, and philosophical depth.

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GnuBobo said:
Ivi--you read, "Heart of a Dog"?

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Yes, but a looong time ago. I've also read Bulgakov's Country Doctor's Notebook and A Theatrical Novel, originally titled as Notes of a Dead Man - an autobiographical novel, very weird and may I say Kafka-ish book with a schizophrenic touch which was never finished because of his death in 1940. It's published as it is, and when during its completed 16 chapters the story has gotten all messed up and weird, the book ends. Just like that. Notes of a Dead Man? I couldn't find a peace of mind for a couple of days after that

If You compare Heart of a Dog and Country Doctor's Notebook to The Master and Margarita and A Theatrical Novel they don't even seem to be written by one and the same man. All these books are interesting, but The Master and Margarita is that of pure genius.

I seriously believe Bulgakov got possessed or something and therefore wrote this book He worked on The Master and Margarita for 12 whole years, and the last changes for it he dictated to his wife in his final weeks, as he lay dying of nephrosclerosis. The Master and Margarita is a dazzling Gogolesque fantasy, witty and ribald, and at the same time it is a penetrating philosophical novel wrestling with profound and eternal problems of good and evil. I can make no examples of the unique way how Bulgakov incorporates the mundane within the divine, and the divine within the mundane. It supposedly complies to a genre called magic realism and personally I keep it right between Carroll's Alice books and Goethe's Faust in my bookshelf

The Master and Margarita was banned in the Soviet Union until 1966-1967 when it was published in an egregiously censored form (first unexpurgated release was only in 1973), but till then it travelled secretly hand to hand as so called samizdat (clandestinely printed and distributed editions). I haven't read the english translation myself and I'm very concerned about what it's like, because of the style in which the book is written, some things just may not make it into another language (I praise God I have studied Russian). Anyway, I think it's really fucking hilarious and everyone should read it at least once. And don't let the Russian person's and geographic names confuse You. And I really do recommend checking out Middlebury College The Master and Margarita site, a lot of in-depth analysis and background information

Here are some "screenshots" (artist Charlie Stone's vision)



And Mikhail Bulgakov himself: