میخائیل و مارگریتا

by Julie Lekstrom Himes, سودابه قیصری (Translator)

این کتاب درباره‌ی عشق و خیانت است و قهرمان آن بولگاکف عاشق مارگریتا می‌شود. کتاب به مثلث عشقی میخائیل بولگاکف، نویسنده‌ی مشهور مرشد و مارگریتا، یک مأمور پلیس مخفی استالین، مارگریتای فریبنده، می‌پردازد. هر سه شخصیت در روسیه و در دهه‌ی ۱۹۳۰ سرنوشت‌های حیرت‌آور و جالبی دارند. زمانه‌ای که ابراز عقیده با قوانین حکومتی سانسور می‌شد وسرکوب سیاسی در جهان امروز به شدت مشهود بود. جولی لکترام هایمز نویسنده‌ی امریکایی است که داستان‌های کوتاهش در مجلات فلوریدا ریویو، فورتین هیلز، شناندوها... چاپ شده است.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Russia, Novels, Literary Fiction, The United States Of America, Book Club

462 pages, Paperback

First published March 14, 2017

Reviews

[Rosa · Rating 1 out of 5]

"میخاییل و مارگاریتا"، کتابیه که در نگاه اول بنظر میرسه که قراره ما رو وسط شور و هیجان ادبیات روسی، عشق ، سیاست و انقلاب ببره ، اما خیلی زود ضعف های روایی پررنگ میشن و ادامه دادنش خسته کننده.
داستان به طرز عجیبی هم تخیلیه، هم می‌خواد واقعی باشه؛ یعنی یه جوری بین رئالیسم جادویی و گزارش تاریخی گیر کرده و آخرش هم نه اون می‌شه نه این. توصیف‌هاش گاهی نسبتا قشنگ و خوبن، اما یهو می‌بینی چند صفحه گذشته و عملا هیچ اتفاقی نیفتاده! کشش داستان جوریه که گاهی حس می‌کنی نویسنده خودش هم خسته شده و فقط میخواد ی جوری کارو تموم کنه.
شخصیت‌پردازی، میخاییل و مارگاریتا بیشتر شبیه دو تا نماد هستن تا آدم واقعی. مارگاریتا اینقدر ایده‌آل و قربانی‌طور طراحی شده که عملا فرصت هم‌دردی واقعی نمیده، میخاییل هم بیشتر شبیه ی شاعر افسرده‌ی کلیشه‌ایه تا اون شخصیت متمایزی که نویسنده قصد داشته از همچین شخصیتی ارائه بده، حتی رابطه‌ی عاطفی و عاشقانه‌شون هم معلق و سردرگمه.
نویسنده واقعا سعی کرده روسیه‌ی استالینی، خفقان سیاسی، سایه‌ی سانسور، ترس آدم‌ها از لو رفت رو به تصویر بکشه اما این فضا گاهی اینقدر پررنگ می‌شه که داستان رو خفه می‌کنه. به‌جای اینکه حس کنی اونجایی، فقط حس می‌کنی نویسنده داره با هیجان بهت توضیح می‌ده که چقدر اون دوره سیاه و خطرناک بوده.
کتاب شاید ایده‌های خوبی داشته ، اما کمبودهای اساسی و‌ اضافات نابجا باعث شده راه اصلیش رو گم کنه و تبدیل به چیزی بین رمان تاریخی، بیوگرافی تخیلی و درام عاشقانه ای بشه که نه دل رمانتیک‌ها رو می‌بره نه دل تاریخ‌دوست‌ها رو.

[Hugh · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise of this book seemed very promising - The Master and Margarita is one of my favourite books, so a book telling the story of the love affair that inspired it could have been great. Indeed for the first 100 pages or so Himes seems to capture the atmosphere of 1930s Moscow very well.

My problem was that the further the story went on the less plausible it got, and by the end it seemed like sheer fantasy. It must be difficult to understand Stalin's Russia at this distance, and Bulgakov's book has many fantastic elements, but for me, when a writer uses real historical characters, plausibility seems to matter more. For a start, the book starts in 1933 shortly before Osip Mandelstam's arrest and exile. According to Wikipedia, Bulgakov started writing M&M in 1928 and married the woman who inspired it in 1932. In Himes' version Margarita is Mandelstam's mistress and Bulgakov meets her for the first time on Mandelstam's last night of freedom.

Perhaps I should just accept the book as an entertaining fantasy, but once doubts like these arise it is hard to lose sight of them.

[Kathleen Flynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read "The Master and Margarita" in college as part of a 20th-century Russian literature class. Set off by socialist-realist Gorky, sentimental Pasternak and grim Zamyatin, Bulgakov's masterpiece leaped off the page like a satanic cat. That anyone could ever write a such a mixture of deadpan political satire, deep religious faith and sheer batshit craziness was marvel enough. But that he wrote it in the grimmest and most terrifying days of Soviet rule, the 1930s, is something I've never stopped finding amazing. How did he do it, how did he find the courage to laugh in the face of all he'd gone through and was still going through?

Maybe it was too much to hope that "Mikhail and Margarita" could answer this question -- it's a hard one -- but I did hope it would explore it a little more than it did, or that it would have something of the same dark, outrageous humor as the novel that inspired it. Bulgakov doesn't seem that funny here, and I'm not sure why Margarita loves him, or if she actually does. The theory of how he managed to write M&M , if I am reading this right, was that he sold his soul to the devil -- along with its secular equivalent, becoming an informer for the secret police. Nor do I get a clear sense of cause and effect in the plot, although a blurry line between magical realism and everyday secret police work in 1930s USSR is definitely an interesting conceit.

[Araam Bayaani]

‎کتاب #میخائیل_و_مارگاریتا
ميخائيل و مارگاريتا
‎نوشته: #جولی_لکسترام_هایمز ‎ و
ترجمه #سودابه_قیصری
اين كتاب با ٤٥٧صفحه از انتشارات كوله_پشتي، در سال٢٠١٧ منتشر شد.

برداشتی تخیلی از زندگی #میخائیل_بولگاکف ، يك مثلث عشقي كه داستان این رمان جذاب در سال 1933 در #مسکو آغاز می شود.
زماني كه ميتوان از حضور #استالين نام برد.
خيانت در كنار عشق و سياست و جو خفقان آور بر #شوروی .
ادبيات و شعر بارها در مقابل سياست، قرار گرفته است و چه بسيار افرادي مانوس به قلم هستند که به بند كشيده مي شوند...
از دختري ميخوانيم به نام #مارگاريتا ، معشوقه ي ماندلشتام که به جهت سرودن شعر منتشر نشده اش در زمان استالين،بازداشت شد.مارگاريتا درنهایت به معشوقه ی بولگاکف و الهام بخش او برای نوشتن شاهکارش، کتاب #مرشد_و_مارگریتا ، تبدیل مي شود.
کتاب صوتی آن را هم میتوانید با اجرای زیبای #رضاعمرانی بشنوید.
معرفی کتاب
#آرام_بیانی #معرفی_کتاب_آرام_بیانی #معرفی_کتاب #کتاب_بخوانیم #کتاب_بشنویم #کتاب #کتابخوانی #انتشارات_کوله_پشتی #کتاب_خوب #کتابباز #به_اشتراک_بگذارید #حال_خوبتان_آرزوست #صلح_جهانی #ماه_آوا
#mikhailandmargarita #julielekstromhimes #goodreads#bookstagram #booklover#book

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imaginem o autor d'O Mestre e Margarita como protagonista de um livro. Agora imaginem que ele se apaixona pela Margarita que por acaso é amante do seu melhor amigo preso por questões políticas. Temos o fio condutor deste livro. Uma história passada em 1933, numa atmosfera sombria da Rússia estalinista onde várias figuras intelectuais se cruzam.



O que menos gostei nesta livro foi a narrativa da Julie. Esperava algo mais rebuscado. No entanto, encontrei uma narrativa muito simplória, apesar de complexa na caracterização das personagens. No inicio estava a gostar muito, mas o entusiasmo esmoreceu com o desenvolvimento pouco intenso e com pouca ação. Talvez a culpa seja o facto de não ter lido o clássico de Bulgakov. Nunca cheguei ao fim. Mas um dia volto a ele.

[Milad · Rating 3 out of 5]

"ناپدید شدن برای من عین آزادی است؛ برای تو عزیزترینم، دیده نشدن، مثل زندان است."

باورم اینه که اگر کتاب مرشد و مارگاریتای بولگاکف رو از قبل خونده بودم، این کتاب حس بهتر و مفهوم بیشتری می تونست برام داشته باشه. با این حال، اوایل کتاب برای من فوق العاده بود... دهه ۳۰، شوروی و استالین... صحبت های بولگاکف، فضای حاکم بر جامعه، سانسور شدید و توضیحات فصول اولیه برام بسیار جذاب بودند اما با گذشت هرچه بیشتر داستان، کشش داستان برام کمتر و کمتر شد. با تمام اینها، چیزی که می شه متوجه شد، این هست که کتاب سعی کرده یه داستان ساختگی رو برای الهام گیری بولگاکف برای اثر ماندگارش مطرح کنه.


"تاریخ دیر به روسیه رسید، جغرافیا منزویش کرد و انزوا هویتش شد."

[Arghavan · Rating 3 out of 5]

یک بار حدود ۱.۵ ماه پیش یک سوم این کتاب رو پیش رفتم ولی جذبش نشدم تا اینکه دوباره هفته پیش از اول شروع به گوش دادن به خوانش آقای رضا عمرانی کردم و با وجود زیبایی صدا و توانمندی ایشون ، باز هم کششی در این کتاب حس نکردم. حتی کنجکاو نبودم که چی میشه. اینقدر نسبت به یک کتاب بی تفاوت بودن هم برام عجیبه. چندجایی تاثیرگذار بود که میگفتم خب دیگه انگار جرقه اش خورده دیگه لذت میبرم
مثل این جمله: "دختر حس می کرد در استخری غرق می شود که توسط دیگران پرشده است."
ولی دریغ...
واقعا خوندم که خونده باشم. لذتی نبردم جز از شنیدن صدای آقای عمرانی که چه بسا اگر صوتی نبود هیچ وقت این کتاب رو شروع هم نمیکردم.
روایتی از دوست داشتن و خفقان بود که باز هم هیچ اهمیتی برام نداشت.
واقعا چرا اینقدر بی تفاوت بودم به این کتاب؟ حتی میخواستم ۲ ستاره بدم و باز گفتم خو دلیلم چیه برای این امتیاز پایین؟ و باز هیچ😑 هیچ رابطه ای بین من و این کتاب شکل نگرفت!!!!!!!
شاید در نگاه دیگران کتاب فوق العاده باشه ، دیگه سلایق متفاوته.
با بی میلی ۳ ستاره میدم.

[Bahar · Rating 2 out of 5]

کاملا تخیلی و فیکشن … حتی ذره ای مطابق با واقعیت نبود. تصور من این بود که قراره زندگینامه‌ی میخاییل بولگاکوف باشه منتها تنها چیز مشترک، اسم میخاییل بولگاکوف بود.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I mentioned on this site a few weeks ago in connection with The Fatal Eggs , Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita was one of the books that, so to speak, marked a turning-point in my life when I read it in my late teens or early twenties. (I really must read it again, after all these years, to see how my older self gets along with it!) So Himes's novel Mikhail and Margarita, promising (according to the blurb writer) to show us how real and imagined events in Bulgakov's life gave rise to his masterpiece, seemed a natural for me.

And so indeed it was . . . with minor reservations. Let me get the reservations out of the way first.

In the blurb we read this:

Ranging between lively readings in the homes of Moscow's literary elite to the Siberian Gulag, Mikhail and Margarita recounts . . .

Yep. Right there in the blurb of a literary novel, there's a grammatical howler. The trouble is that the text itself has rather too many of these -- verbs that don't agree with their subjects, that sort of thing. Perhaps twenty instances (I wasn't counting) in a longish novel might not seem much to complain about, but each of them created a disproportionately large disruption of my reading -- and, besides, there shouldn't have been any.

Also disruptive were the occasional pieces of overly selfconscious Wordsmitherie, like this one (pp105-106):

She looked at his hand where it rested on his thigh. It was large and angular. It seemed itself a self-aware organ. She could envision it nesting a fledging bird; in her imagining his fingers curved around it, protectively. The bird's eyes in its downy face were black beads. It looked about, uncertain, yet not altogether protesting. Then, as though without reflection on their intent, the fingers closed in and broke the creature's neck.

Grr.

But what of the novel itself, which I did very much enjoy despite these irritants?

In this version of events, Bulgakov takes as his lover the discarded mistress, Margarita, of his disgraced friend, the poet Osip Mandelstam. Completely obsessed by her, almost as much as by the success of his current Stanislawski-directed Moscow production, he begins somewhat desultory work on what we now know as his masterpiece.

These are not easy times to be a writer in the Soviet Union. The authorities are all too ready to crack down on real or imagined sedition in often the most unlikely works. The victims of these oppressive actions are lucky if they're merely tortured unmercifully and then, frail shadows of their former selves, banished for long periods to environments harsh enough that life may be short; others simply disappear or are found as mutilated corpses. With his caustic wit, Bulgakov would surely have been in severe danger of meeting one of these fates, but for some inexplicable reason (this is a matter of historical record) Stalin decided he liked him. The encounter in which the brutal, faux-genial dictator explains this to the writer is presented as the formulation of a sort of Faustian contract; I found it absolutely chilling.

The relationship between Bulgakov and Margarita is further complicated by the fact that he's not the only man to be obsessed by her. So too is Ilya Ivanovich, a powerful member of some branch or other of Stalin's secret police. Ilya is, ironically, forced by circumstances to play the amorous rivalry by the rules -- he can't simply lay a slew of false charges against Stalin's favorite writer and make him vanish forever into the Lubyanka. When Margarita is arrested on bogus charges and banished to the Gulag, however, it becomes a case of each man for himself as the two rivals seek to rescue her . . .

Although the blurb maintains that the novel's about the genesis of The Master and Margarita, that's not really the case (unless I was missing quite a lot more than I thought I was). It's true of the closing pages, where a few incidents occur that would, we can understand, lead Bulgakov to pick up his abandoned manuscript and rework it into the book we know today, but most of Himes's novel is independent of its predecessor -- which means, of course, that you don't need to have read the earlier novel in order to enjoy this one!

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always loved the idea of "The Master and Margarita." The devil comes to Moscow with an entourage that includes a naked witch and a giant talking cat! But to be honest, I struggled through it, never really unlocking its magic. Julie Lekstrom Himes has not only unlocked Bulgakov's magic, she has taught it some wonderful new tricks. "Mikhail and Margarita" is a love story, but it is also a love letter. If I could ride the rails across the Russian steppe, I would bring with me only one book.

[Mari LivTollefsonCarlson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspired by Mikhail Bulgakov’s classic, Master and Margarita, in Mikhail and Margarita, Julie Lekstrom Himes tells a tale of enduring love: what threatens and what saves it. (Is it coincidence that both Bulgakov and Himes are physicians and novelists?) Satan figures prominently in Bulgakov’s original novel. In Hime’s novel, Party official Ilya Ivanovich plays the part of the evil tempter luring Margarita away from one form of imprisonment to another. Meanwhile, satirist Mikhail Bulgakov, her lover and the reason for her imprisonment, tries to rescue her himself. This love triangle tells us not only about the devotion and betrayal between the participants, but the risky act of writing that engages them all in the first place.
Mikhail and Ilya aren’t the only ones who love Margarita. Almost everyone who meets her falls for her. Bulgakov becomes smitten when he first meets her as his friend’s mistress. Her bunk-mate at the women’s work camp becomes attached to her and the guards show attraction, too. We don’t know much about her. She is gaunt and assertive, but kind and vulnerable, too. She works at a newspaper and, even though she doesn’t know why, she prefers writers to anyone else, which begs the question, “what is it about Margarita?”
Himes provides clues to Margarita’s key role in the drama with her choppy prose and curt dialogue. Many sentences come across as interruptions, like the bugs and other creepy- crawlies that make several unexpected appearances throughout the book. The effect is of constant suspense. I read with my face close to the page, nervous not to miss any tiny detail that might jump out at me. “Quite suddenly, her skin prickled; to the far right, along the distant wall, she caught the movement of an animal, a large rat, making its way along the silvery floor” (147). Margarita, like the bugs that fall from the ceiling onto the table, or the drowning boy she catches in the corner or her eye, represents those overlooked, undervalued, marvelous paradoxes worth fighting for. She ignites something in both men and women that gives them a reason to keep going.
Philosopher Hannah Arendt, a contemporary of Bulgakov, said that only good is radical; not evil. Evil is banal and has no core. It is nothingness. It reduces humans while good elevates and can be pursued to its depths. Both are exemplified in Hime’s superb novel. “She reached across the dark car toward Ilya; her fingers stopped short of him. Why Bulgakov? She thought back to Patriarch’s Ponds [where she first met him] - had he known then? Before everything, had she known of those things of which she could be capable? She withdrew her hand. Write your most flawed character, she wished to him so far away. She squeezed her eyes shut until the darkness turned red. She strengthened her prayer. Tell all of humanity and write your grandest villain, your most foul sinner. Write as though mankind depended on this. And render some parcel of that humanity for me” (338). Literature is means both to explore moral extremes as well as to create new possibilities of which we become the products. Like Margarita, beloved of two main characters and others, we, too, are rendered a parcel of humanity in the gift of Himes’ writing.

[Trude T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mihhail Bulgakov on minu lemmikraamatu “Meister ja Margarita” autor ja seega asusin ka käesolevat teost suure põnevusega lugema. See on ilukirjanduslik teos, mille aluseks on Bulgakovi päris elulugu ja tolleaegsed arhiivisissekanded. Omamoodi huvitav on ju lugeda tõesti eksisteerinud inimestest ja aset leidnud sündmustest, aga pisut mind ikkagi häiris teadmine, et osaliselt on ju autor lasknud ka oma fantaasial lennata ning tõelisuse ja väljamõeldise piiri võib vaid aimata.

Raamatus on juttu Bulgakovi elust pingelistel aegadel, mil vene võim pidevalt riigivastaste tegevuste pärast inimesi kõrvaldas. Ka luuletajad ja kirjanikud sattusid tihti NKVD ametnike huviorbiiti - nii juhtuski ühe Bulgakovi hea sõbraga, kes jäljetult kadus. Mehe armuke, Margarita, hakkas peale seda Bulgakovile aina enam meeldima ja peagi olidki nad teineteisse armunud. Margaritale sai aga tutvus Stalini lemmikkirjanikuga saatuslikuks, sest peagi leidis naine end rongivagunist, mille sihiks Venemaa avarustes asuv sunnitöölaager. Uudist kuuldes hakkas Bulgakov otsima võimalusi, kuidas oma suure armastusega taas kohtuda ja ta päästa.

Minu jaoks oli siin rohkelt nüansse elukorraldusest 1930-ndate Venemaal ja kogu loo atmosfäär tõi tahtmise uuesti üle lugeda Bulgakovi suurteost, millest siinne lugu ka kohati on inspiratsiooni saanud.

[Elena Sala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mikhail Bulgakov, (1891-1940), lived in Russia during the height of Stalin’s dictatorship. His plays were so popular that they captured the attention of Stalin, who allowed him to continue to write, as long as his writing remained nonpolitical. Bulgakov, however, could not remain politically quiet and took to writing more inflammatory and charged fiction and plays. Few of these works made it to the public.
In 1928 Bulgakov began his masterpiece, MASTER AND MARGARITA, a satirical novel about the devil visiting the atheist Soviet Union. Knowing it would not be published and fearing retribution for writing it when the novel was nearly completed, Bulgakov burned the entire manuscript. One year later, despite the danger, he rewrote the novel from memory.
Bulgakov never saw his novel published.
Himes’ book, MIKHAIL AND MARGARITA (2017), is a fictional reimagining of Bulgakov’s life. It is a love story which uses real moments from Bulgakov’s life and from life in Soviet Russia. The novel explores ideas of censorship in an authoritarian government and has the fictional Bulgakov meet and interact with some of his own characters.
MIKHAIL AND MARGARITA is a heartfelt homage to Bulgakov. Allusions to his books are found all over the novel. But most of all, it is a reminder of what it means to live in an oppressive regime.

[Julian Douglass · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting book on the role of art, deception, and love in 1930's Soviet Russia, a time may historians see as the most oppressive under Stalin. Ms. Himes paints the setting and the multiple layers of deception that happened in the era in a wonderful way. I also enjoyed seeing the internal struggle that Mr. Bulgakov goes through to keep up his appearance as a writer searching for truth while also acting as a agent for the secret police. It is a very lovely tale and the ending really tells us the true nature of the Soviet state at this time. A little hot and cold in some places to be honest, but overall a very good book.

[Amene · Rating 2 out of 5]

وقتی یک آمریکایی سعی می‌کنه راجع به روسیه ی استالینی بنویسه
آش بدجوری شور و لوس میشه با پایانی هندی 😉

[Feisty Harriet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I'd read this book immediately after reading THE MASTER & MARGARITA, there are a lot of pieces that I think would fit together much better if it hadn't been 4 years in between these two novels. Overall, however, a fascinating look at the rise of the Bolsheviks, literary censorship, state-owned artists, and what ultimately became the Soviet state.

[Susmarebidandun · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب خوبی بود. طرح داستان، یک مثلث عاشقانه‌ است که سه ضلع آن میخائیل بولگاکف ( نویسنده‌ی کتاب مرشد و مارگریتا) ، مارگریتا ، و ایلیا (یک کارمند و بازجوی زمان استالین) است، در حقیقت طرح داستان، ابزاری‌ست برای بیان شرایط و وضعیت زندگی مردم و بخصوص نویسندگان و اندیشمندان، در زمان استالین و شرح مصائب و مشکلات آنها تحت نظارت و سانسور شدید دستگاه و فساد شدید نظام کمونیستی. داستان از شخصیتهای حقیقی همچون بولگاکف یا اخماتوا و سایر شهرا و نویسندگان استفاده میکند تا ضمن شرح مصائبی که بر آنان رفته داستان را ملموس‌تر و واقعی‌تر کند، به نظرم ایده و داستان خوبی بود

[Stephanie Crowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

An intense and gripping read about censorship in Russia during the 1930's and its effect on the literary community. Specifically targeted in Himes novel is Mikail Bulgakov, a gifted writer, and a woman he loves, Margarita. A further complication is the presence of Ilya Ivanovich, a government agent , who also loves Margarita. A compelling story!

[John Devlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps I’ve read too much Alan Furst, too much Solzhenitsyn, too much Russia in the interwar years.

For me nothing much was new and while the tone fit the years and the place there’s nothing much here except a certain somber lyricism to keep someone reading.

This would’ve been three stars but the major plot mechanic at the book’s end is unbelievable.

[Will Drickey · Rating 1 out of 5]

"whoa it turns out that Mikhail Bulgakov wrote a book about the soviet union and a woman named margarita and a big black cat and the devil because he literally met all of them while he was trying to write a new book guess he was kind of a hack huh"
-this book

[D.R. Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mikhail and Margarita is a daring attempt at an imaginary background behind The Master and Margarita, one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. I don't think it's fair to criticize the story for not adhering to exact historical facts, that was clearly not the intent. Ms. Lekstrom-Himes painted the cruel, soul-destroying absurdity of the Soviet regime which Bulgakov so brilliantly exposed in his novel. I thought the characters could have been better formed, but I applaud Ms. Lekstrom-Himes for having the courage to tackle such a difficult subject. Refreshing compared to the formula-driven books that populate our bestseller lists.

[Autumn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have not read Master and Margarita but that did not keep me from enjoying this book. It was fascinating to read about the political attitude towards writers in Russia at this time and to get an "account" of the circumstances that led to the writing of M&M. I did skim our copy of M&M and it does seem like she does an excellent job of capturing the mood of the novel.

[Sara Habein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This made me want to read The Master and Margarita again so I could pair up how they reference each other, as well as finally read A Country Doctor's Notebook (though I have seen the TV adaptation). I am a sucker for art that does not hide how it is influenced by previous art, rather than pretending all ideas mysteriously come from the inspired ether.

Of course, anything that has to do with the Russian government has resonance today, and some of that certainly adds to the experience of reading, but it's just a well-written, fascinating book. Like the work from which it is inspired, it takes a little acclimating to get used to the more formal language (if one is not used to it), but it's worth it. Do pick this up.

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Won’t be recommending this one...

The best thing I can say about this book is that I somehow managed to finish it. I don’t understand it in the least, except to understand that life under Stalin was a Hell on Earth. I have no idea why people were were being dragged off, tortured, and sent to prison camps; no explanations were given. Maybe that’s just how it was then. I kept reading because I had hope that at some point things would be explained & become clear. No such luck. I should have followed my instincts, & quit after 50 pages.

[Moshtagh hosein · Rating 2 out of 5]

یک کتاب تخیلی که ربط چندانی به مرشد و مارگاریتا از بولگاکف نداره و فقط نام شخصیت ها با اون کتاب یکیه،یک کتاب تا حدود زیادی زرد!
من فکر کردم کتابی هست از نویسندگان روز روسیه و نه ماضی !

[Gautam Bhatia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the books that I hadn’t heard about or was looking for; I chanced upon it in a bookshop, and picked it up on the strength of the blurb. I’ve been dipping into the post-Revolutionary Russian avant-garde of late, and so a story that promised a love triangle involving (in some way) Osip Mandelstam, Mikhail Bulgakov, and the Margarita of The Master and Margarita, seemed irresitible.

I was disappointed. After setting up a fantastic premise and context, the novel went down a very predictable road. Mandelstam features at the beginning of the novel, as a placeholder to introduce Bulgakov to Margarita. He then vanishes from the page (having been exiled), and we rarely hear of him again. Meanwhile, the “triangle” (so to say) involves Bulgakov, Margarita, and Ilya - a Soviet police agent, who - of course - wields significant power over both of them.

What the novel then turns into is an account of life under Stalinist terror/a totalitarian system - a theme that has now been so well-traversed, that it feels positively tedious. At times, I felt that I was reading a novelised account of The Lives of Others, and I think we can agree that nobody wants to read (yet another) novelised account of The Lives of Others. Besides, if you did want to read about perilous intimacies under Stalinism, Victor Serge is right there; why turn to an American novelist writing seventy-five years later? The novel would have been a lot better if we’d received more insight into Bulgakov himself - had it been, say, a novel about Bulgakov and his relationship with Margarita. But by the end of it, it’s not really clear whether Bulgakov and Margarita have been chosen for who they were, or whether any other overlapping couple from that era could have stepped in and done the job just as serviceable.

To be fair, the novel does have a remarkable twist at the end which rescues it somewhat - but not, in my view, enough to salvage it as a whole from the charge of derivativeness.

[James Winter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Already a big fan of "The Master and Margarita," I was looking forward to getting another glimpse into Soviet Russia in the early Stalin years. More than that, having met Julie last spring, and being a historical fiction writer myself, I wanted to see how she would imagine Mikhail's impetus for writing the novel. When I read historical fiction, sometimes I don't necessarily care what is fact or fiction. Rather, the "faction," as Mailer calls it, should lend itself to reaching for the truth of the facts and thus the height of the fiction. Julie does this wonderfully throughout, whether in terms of the overall scope of the narrative to its chapter-by-chapter scenes.

Looking at the cover, I expected more of a conventional love story. And there isn't--which I adored. There is no meet-cute, no first date, no first time in bed. Mikhail and Margarita meet through a mutual friend. After their friend's imprisonment and exile, they become lovers. It's as simple as that, and is handled in such an adult way that it underscores the human tension underlying the Soviet regime, its sapping its citizens of their individual desires in the name of the state.

So much of the novel does that, in fact. Small moments deftly and beautifully described, from women's work camps to Soviet Writer Union's meetings. And the characters--the world--all of it fully rendered.

This novel won the Center for Fiction's 2017 Debut Fiction Book Award--it's well-deserved.

[Jaci · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, who can you trust in Stalinist Soviet Union? The author of The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov, is with his friend Osip Mandelstam in 1933 when the latter is arrested. This novel projects Bulgakov's life from that point and his relationship with Margarita Nikoveyena, Mandelstam's lover and inspiration for Bulgakov's novel. Historical fiction? Definitely an excursion into censorship and tyranny, survival and loyalty.
p.13: History came late to Russia.

p.17: Mandelstam waited for his attention. "Only in this country is poetry respected," he said. "There's no place where more people are killed for it."

p.46: He'd [Mandelstam] sacrificed in defense of all of them. Yet they would call it something else. They would assign it a different motivation--discontent, naivete--to make their lack of action defensible.

p.112: The poet's death [Mayakovsky] tolled throughout literary Russia with an unmistakable voice: there was no place in Soviet literature for the individualist.

p.271: Indeed, how could the Tsar, no different from any Russian, understand freedom, trapped in a land that went on forever yet never changed.

p.330: One could believe that one's actions hadn't diminished the lives of others.

[Rosemary Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Himes did an excellent job of bringing the reader into the social and political climate of Stalin's Russia. Character dialogues were measured and restrained, and personal thoughts and perceptions filled with fear and uncertainty. Moscow was portrayed as gray, cold and dingy. Siberia's landscape and cold added to the portrayal of despair and isolation. Even the book cover was done in black, white and gray. I felt immersed in the tension, desperation, terror, and hopelessness of that time and place.

Historical fiction is a tricky thing and requires a leap of faith. It's not my favorite genre. So, I was somewhat bothered by discrepancies in Bulgakov's real life versus the imagined ones in the book. (For example, Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya, Bulgakov's third wife, is generally recognized as the model for Margarita in The Master and Margarita. Elena remained with him until his death in 1940 and preserved the novel until its first publication in 1966.)

However, I did very much enjoy the book, especially, the second half.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a remarkable first novel and captures the tone and spirit of Stalinist Russia as well as any not written in that era. Long stretches of it remind of writers like Vasily Grossman and Victor Serge who lived in that era of pervasive paranoia. I loved the depiction of the poet Osip Mandelstam and his wife Nadia. There is even an interesting cameo of Stalin which reflects a fuller understanding of the murderous tyrant than is commonly known in Russia or the West. But I can assure you that nothing about life under Stalin is sugar-coated and, in fact, the scenes of brutality are as candid as they need to be.

The fact that the author, Julie Lekstrom Hynes, is a working physician is a tribute to her amazing capacity for research in such different fields as history and medicine. The writing is beautiful and as a fan of Bulgakov, I found his characterization to be both engaging and believable. After getting to know Hymes' character Margarita, I have to go back and reread Bulgakov's great classic and with her in mind. All in all, a superb first novel that deserves far more attention than it has received.