in soviet russia...

THE MASTER AND MARGARITA: quick thoughts

finally finished the master and margarita and feel quite smacked in the face by it all. i keep commenting on the weakness of the translation only to find out it's pevear & volokhonsky. the best, right? though i am not one to hold close to the quite arbitrary process of translation.

representation of women: i was very disappointed by the fact that women were depicted as either screaming with fear, greedy, adulterous, or naked. they were mostly maids and wives and mistresses. i did not like how he fell into gender cliches. but MARGARITA is a wonderful character despite love being all she works for.

i must say i really enjoyed the PONTIUS PILATE chapters and how wonderfully he weaved that into THE MASTER's process of writing.

and the narrator was excellent, switching from omnisicent to conveniently mortal and within the story, from the subjective to objective views on the scene, crossing across time a lot to draw parallels and pull strings, emphasizing the smash of windows and the blazing of buildings. this is what i enjoyed the most, his fascination with the heaving spectacles that terrorize moscow & his satire: especially when it comes to depicting atheists confronting the absurd events. love it. imagery above all was this novel's saving grace.

though i must say i tired of it towards the end.

on to the bluest eye (yeah yeah toni!)