Ivan Nikolayevich Ponyrev’s poem which says Jesus wasn’t a good person is unacceptable to his boss because, of course, Jesus never existed. Such is the party line that the writers’ guild must uphold in Stalinist Russia, the setting of Mikhail Bulgakov’s, The Master and Margarita. The Devil, however, has not acquiesced, and is reveling in mischief in Moscow.
In a parallel story, a small bird, probably the same Satan, observes Pontius Pilate as he agrees to sentence three troublemakers to death in Jerusalem, a city ruled by Rome, another oppressive state with an autocratic ruler.
In the Moscow plot, Satan and several of his followers harass the writers in their luxurious club and take over the theater where they put on a black magic show that rains money. The egalitarian communist comrades shove each other out of the way to grab as much as they can, but alas, the money turns to illegal foreign currency a soon as they leave the theater.
The reader is introduced to the comic relief, Behemoth, a witch’s cat writ large. He is an enormous black tom who walks on his hind legs and speaks, tries to pay to board the trolley, gilds his whiskers for the ball but refuses trousers (cats don’t wear pants), and enjoys cold double distilled Moscow vodka.
Midway through the novel, the two main characters, the Master and Margarita, are finally introduced to the reader. He is a gifted writer whose extraordinary novel about Pontius Pilate has been rejected by the writers’ guild. She, a woman whose privileged lifestyle is the envy of most of Russia, gives it up for the love of him. When they are separated, Margarita, like Faust, makes a bargain with the conveniently present devil so they may become reunited.
At the same time, two thousand years earlier, Pontius Pilate is plotting with the head of his secret service to murder Judas.
Bulgakov has plenty to say about the Russian people and humanity in general. This provocative novel can be read as a straightforward story filled with magical realism and fantasy. It can be read as a political satire so skewering the book could not be published during the author’s lifetime. It can be read as a philosophical treatise exploring the collaboration between good and evil.
The Master and Margarita is found on the lists of great Russian novels along with War and Peace and The Brothers Karamazov. It is fun to take on the challenge of a “great” once in a while, but my reading buddy and I could not have done it without the help of the online resource LitCharts. It provided chapter summaries and analyses, and enabled us to keep track of those long Russian names that keep changing.
Velma Wallis comes from a long line of Athabaskan natives with a culture of storytelling. Her mother told tales of the ancients, long before Western contact, whiling away the frigid Alaskan nights telling riddles and stories. Wallis’s book, Two Old Women, is one of them.
During a time of winter famine, the band’s chief made an unpleasant decision. Two old women of the tribe were to be left behind to give the younger ones a better chance of survival. The women had been enjoying the help accorded to them as the oldest and least able members, but now they would pay the price of being perceived as weak.
It wouldn’t be a story if the abandoned women gave up, so we see them resurrect skills and memories of how to feed themselves and keep warm. Wallis gives many details on how the natives sustained themselves in the hostile environment. Athabascan stories often had morals and were used for teaching. In this case, there are several. The young are to value and respect the old; people will rise to the occasion when necessity demands; but also, in this frigid land, the old have the responsibility to continue to participate and be of service to the group. Retirement is not an option.
Presenting a different view, that life should be enjoyed as much as possible, is an old story from a different part of the world with a more pleasant climate. The Rubaiyat, a long poem written in quatrains, attributed to Omar Khayyam from the 1100’s in Persia, extols the virtues of drinking wine and telling stories.
At Shangri-la in Hawaii, Doris Duke’s magnificent collection of Islamic art, we saw a series of drawings illustrating these four-line verses with the words written in Farsi along the sides and a translation into old English along the bottom.
With Eternity, zealot, how long wilt us ply? From my thought, root and branch, I have long put it by. Drink wine, for there’s nothing its place can supply; Each knot of perplexment after wine doth untie.
Haruki Murakami, author of many delightful novels such as A Wild Sheep Chase and Kafka on the Shore has written a how-to manual entitled Novelist as a Vocation. He tells how he first started to write and what is necessary to develop such an inclination into a career.
First the story must well up from the unconscious and clamor to be told. Building on this necessary starting point which cannot be controlled, comes the work of turning the idea into a manuscript, which very much can be controlled. He tells of hard work, physical and mental, discipline, patience, and the importance of reading widely.
Murakami’s novels contain elements of magical realism, but he may not think of them as such because unexplainable epiphanies are part of his real life. When watching his favorite underdog baseball team, he saw the batter connect with a satisfying crack and at that moment his mind opened and he “knew” he would write a novel despite never having thought about it beforehand.
This engaging collection of articles published as chapters, such as “Who Do I Write For?” will appeal to the reader who has enjoyed Murakami’s quirky, inciteful novels. It will also appeal to anyone who has ever thought about turning an idea into a novel, short story, or article – the would-be writer.
At an outdoor art fair, a friend and I admired this pendant with the shark motif. “Do you know what a group of sharks is called?” the jeweler asked. “A shiver of sharks.” Ah, another word lover. We could have guessed. Her business which deals in jewelry made from ocean glass is named Tossed and Found.
You’ve definitely taken on some challenging works in this edition. I applaud you and hope you purchased the necklace!
My friend did. I bought nifty earrings.