Robert Strupp’s Reviews > The Master and Margarita > Status Update

I just don't have any desire to read, even though many folks have it as a "must" read. I struggled with it, but it's just too much. In what? thousands of books read, I've never had to read a commentary in the back before reading the next chapter. The book's about 100 years old and centered in Moscow, Russia, USSR.

Slow. Esp. w/having to turn to the back, read the "Commentary," then page to the front while trying to recall what was written in the commentary. It IS interesting reading the tidbits revealed about 1930's USSR. (Facts NYC voters should've been aware of prior to making Zohran Mamdani mayor Nov. 4th, 2025.) Fantastical things happen which require the reader to just hang in there sans any explanation.

A book I read in bed, so going is slow and this title, written almost 100 years ago in the U.S.S.R. with its commentary in the back that must be read prior to each chapter makes the going even slower. So many people have read it and rated it 4 or more I've got to find out why. So I keep reading.

Earlier this year, or was it last year, I found 'M&M' incomprehensible, ceased reading and donated it to library. Later, I was reading article in 'Touchstone' that delved deeply into 'The Master & The Margarita,' explaining its subject. I bought the book back for 75-cents, and began re-reading. NOTE: One MUST read, alongside each chapter, the chapter-by-chapter' COMMENTARY in the back of the book. This is mandatory.

This is one book where the notes, the 23 pages of "Commentary," must be read in order to understand the what's happening. I see there's an additional 8 pages of "Afterword" and such. Dunno about you, but I read fiction for pure enjoyment. 'M&M' is more like a foreign textbook. I don't, yet, understand its high 4-point Goodreads rating.

Always interesting reading a book written in another language translated into English. So far we've got a conversation between two Russians, and since I read the back cover, Satan.