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Pontius Pilate's Dog. Satan's Cat.

As part of a series of New Years non-resolutions, Yours Truly has just finished reading his first novel for 2008, Mikhail Bulgakov's classic The Master and Margarita. I first read this magical PseudoLatinoesque satire back during the holiday season of 1995 . . . a lifetime ago. Its charm and enchantment have not faded during that time. I could say simply that the novel is about the reconciliation, two thousand years in the making, between Pontius Pilate and Jesus of Nazareth . . . a reconciliation facilitated, unexpectedly, by a nameless Russian author known only as the Master, his lover and literary enabler Margarita, a terribly misunderstood Satan and his mischievous retinue, and a host of irritating Soviet bureaucrats who only get what they deserve.

I could say that, but I won't. Just read it. There's nekkid women, decapitations, a gunfight between a vodka-swilling tomcat and soviet police, ritual blood drinking, murder, magic, betrayal, distortions in the space-time continuum, a Great Dane who remains faithful to his master across two millenia, . . . and did I already say nekkid women?

---the PL

Posted by earwicker at January 3, 2008 11:59 PM