4. Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov

Ok - so it's a fairly complex story. I stumbled across a multimedia attempt to make sense of the characters and themes in this book. Worth a look - perhaps after you've read it :)

I was talking to Dutchy about this book the other day, and he asked me what I'd compare it to. I know this is banal and the phrase is overused but Bulgakov struck me as being quite Kafka-esque. Or is it more like Dickens, or Douglas Adams? I'm definitely not qualified to make a judgement on the matter, and I'm not going to support any statement I might make anyway.

By about halfway through this book I found that I wasn't believing a single thing that was being written. I was second-guessing the narrative and found myself questioning why this might be the case. It has to do with the way Bulgakov weaves his story. It's a thoroughly intriguing story, and there is so much sleight of hand and trickery you end up not committing to an interpretation of what is going on until as late as possible. This delayed decision process makes the appreciation of the book quite unique. I put ideas, and potential decisions on a stack and try and keep track of them, and tie them together when it's become clear that this can be done. But it's never terribly clear. It's a heinous book in that regard :D

The ending was very special. I finished the last 50 pages standing up in my kitchen reading directly under a ceiling light. Bulgakov finishes the book beautifully. It is a masterful and beautiful ending.

I can wholeheartedly agree, without reservation, that Bulgakov is a master writer of the highest order and that "Master and Margarita" is a timeless classic. This book deserves to be read several times in a lifetime.

The next reading project is a secret, because I probably won't finish the book I have in mind - but I'll be sure to blog about it here if I do.

3. Heart of a Dog - Mikhail Bulgakov

Bulgakov is funny. Quite the satirist. Really enjoyed this. Very simple language (taking into account that I read the translation by Michael Glenny). However the story was fantastic, and had me laughing out loud. I was lucky to temporarily have a Georgian (who speaks fluent Russian) flatting with me in Wellington and he was able to give me some solid background on the story (much needed).

Anyway, about to launch into his bigger novel - "The Master and Margarita". Having had a quick flick through it, it seems Bulgakov might flex his stylist muscles in this one.

2. Profane Friendship - Harold Brodkey

The language in this book is so inventive. I've honestly not read anything quite like it before. But it's hard going. At times I wanted to put the book down. The incessant detailing of complex relationships or emotions proved tiring. At times it became difficult to appreciate everything he was saying. The detail he puts into Onni! I can't imagine anyone analysing or thinking about someone with such excruciating depth. But he comes up with gems! Some of it reminded me of Henry Miller - perhaps not so much in style, but in boldness? Some quotes along the way:

At recess in school, taken on the roof of the palazzo the school occupied, he was wilful, he was drunk with will in play, largely serious and untalkative, and vivid in movement, and greatly interested in being who he was.

... Something in Onni's face, a fluctuation of something like a cloud of feeling or like a sheaf of the cold rain that comes and goes briefly in Venice sometimes around us in the shifting light, was the look of an inward scream phallically.

The sunlight shiftingly flickers among the movements of eyelashes, and the world rolls slightly in its customary Adriatic-afternoon fashion. One hears his vocal inflections - his trained vocal inflections.

The darkness of the interior of his mouth in the very hot early sun housed crows and blackbirds, croaking objurgations... I said, "Let's not pretend to talk... Let's pretend not to talk." Meaning that silence was talk anyway.

One thing I kept thinking through this book was that Brodkey is offering the reader insight. So much of what he says seems so deep, so valuable, that you know if you absorb it it will change you. He laces together metaphors, and images so wildly at odds with each other, but so oddly suited to the task that the effect is almost surgical. He is (in actuality - a favourite word of his in this book) modifying the way you think about and address situations and people. But this makes it pretty heavy. Great book - but I'm tired now.

On to no. 3 - "The Heart of a Dog" by Michail Bulgakov.

1. First Love & Other Sorrows - Harold Brodkey

Ok - so "Against the Day" didn't quite make the first book of 2008. I'm not overly impressed with Pynchon's writing and a good friend of mine lent me some Brodkey and that seemed like the thing to do. So "First Love & Other Sorrows" sits beside me read, and thoroughly enjoyed.

This is an early Brodkey - in fact his first published book, so I'm reserving my judgement until I've read the other work of his lent to me at the same time - "Profane Friendship". I'll say this though, there were a good number of gems in there, and a few "fuck off" moments, but the thing that's jiving with me is the way he describes relationships, especially the internal struggles, those deeply interpersonal awkward moments between friends and lovers. That is most impressive - the guy is deep. Gotta get me some more of that stuff.

Great book. On to no. 2 - "Profane Friendship" by Harold Brodkey.