Loved it/Hated it/Afraid to read it/Conquered it

[Brina]

Kathleen agree 1. I read it in a day. I'm scared of 3. I loved Ogawa's Housekeeper and Professor but Hotel Iris is a different genre altogether and we usually like the same style books. I'll keep it for when I'm in the mood of a thriller.

[Susan]

1. Loved it: Demian by Hermann Hesse
2. Hated it: The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
3. Afraid of it: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
4. Conquered it: Clarissa by Samuel Richardson

[Kathleen]

Brina wrote: "Kathleen agree 1. I read it in a day. I'm scared of 3. I loved Ogawa's Housekeeper and Professor but Hotel Iris is a different genre altogether and we usually like the same style books. I'll keep i..."

Thanks, Brina. I still need to read Housekeeper. About Brewster Place though, glad to share another good one with you!

[[deleted user]]

I was surprised at how different the Dracula in the book differs from movie adaptations but to be honest the ending was disappointing.
Rosemarie, I skipped the chapter detailing the church architecture and read it later as sort of an essay. I loved the Hunchback...however.

[Beatrice]

Loved it: Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
Hated it: The Name of the Rose
Afraid to read it: Divine Comedy
Conquered it: War and Peace

[ALLEN]

Brina wrote: "I never liked Catcher in the Rye and yet school's keep using it over and over. That and A Separate Peace. They were and remain my two least favorite, with Mockingbird being passed down to my kids. ..."

Personally, I liked CATCHER and A SEPARATE PEACE but yes, they are period pieces.

The trouble is that public-school boards are as conservative as the most conservative parents who get upset. ARE YOU THERE, GOD? IT'S ME MARGARET (Judy Blume) -- mentions menstruation, doesn't it? So that doesn't sit well with some. I'm particularly fond of THE CHOCOLATE WARS by Robert Cormier (1974), much of which has to do with the kids at a religious school who are forced to hawk chocolates and other goodies, only to find that the proceeds of the chocolate sales don't help the people they were told it would. Some schools find that too cynical -- others, and I'm thinking of one I went to in particular -- get upset because it is too accurate.

There is room for FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS by H.G. Bissinger, too, I think, especially among older high-schoolers. It is not the teen-love-oriented NBC show, but is sympathetic toward the needs of high-school football players. Here's where it gets nixed--it also also says some sharp things about why and how important Permian H.S. athletics -- in particular football -- are to the life of Permian parents. That makes some high schools hoppin' mad because it tells the truth about rivalry and class antagonisms, from one race to another and from one city to another (in this case, blue-collar Odessa vs. white-collar Midland, Texas). But honestly, most of the parents who reject the book never read it. And unless you live in West Texas, there's no need to take it personally no matter what.

Of course, there are so many more YA novels written more recently. I can't pretend to have much exposure to those.

-- --

[Brina]

I would like it if kids read newer books that they can relate to better. A novel idea is at the beginning of the year ask parents to fill out a questionnaire of what there favorite and least favorite book they read in school during their children's grades and let the teachers use this a tool to plan their curricula.
Last year the only classic book my son read in 7th grade was The Hobbit. Everything else was relatively new. I would never ask my kids to read a book that turned me off to reading classics for years and I wish schools would take feedback into account.

[ALLEN]

I'm no big Hobbit fan myself but so many people LOVED it (50 years ago) that I would not wish to stand in their way. If nothing else, it sets one up for the LOTR books and movies, and even if kids don't fall in love with Fantasy as a genre, they'll have something to talk about with other kids.

Some of the books I disliked intensely all those years ago I am now beginning to rediscover with great pleasure: GREAT EXPECTATIONS, for example, which one group here at GR is about to start discussing in earnest.

[Brina]

Allen, I've had this conversation on GR before- that at 15 I don't think that most students have the life experiences to enjoy many classics. I believe that most books read should be contemporary literary fiction/award winners that kids and teens can relate to with one classic a year just for exposure. I had not read classics for many years until joining this group and now that I have I am enjoying myself. That says something about schools having their literature students read 6 classics a year and being sick of literature after leaving high school.

[Marilyn]

My school had a terrible English department. We didn't read anything. That may have been a blessing. I read Pride & Prejudice and Little Women for the first time in my 30s, and To Kill A Mockingbird and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in my 50s. I loved, loved, loved, loved each one of them.

[Susan]

I have to stand up for the classics here. They're classics because they're timeless. People of every generation can relate to them because they communicate the universal human experience. If schoolchildren aren't enjoying them, perhaps different teaching strategies can be tried.

[Rosemarie]

The students can also tell if a teacher is engaged with the book she/he is teaching. If the teacher finds teaching the book a chore, the kids will notice.
As a retired substitute teacher I have had some interesting conversations with students in middle school.

I like The Catcher in the Rye, which I first read in my 40s.

[Brina]

Maybe it was the teachers then. I had a strong dislike for some of my high school teachers and got nothing out of the books. Great point, Susan. I reread To Kill a Mockingbird and passed it to my 6th grade daughter- she loves it, also reread Gatsby, and this year rereading Cry, the Beloved Country. Maybe then the teachers should pick books that interest them rather than a set curriculum.

[ALLEN]

Brina wrote: "Allen, I've had this conversation on GR before- that at 15 I don't think that most students have the life experiences to enjoy many classics. I believe that most books read should be contemporary l..."

That's a good point, Brina. Most of the ninth-grade curriculum (a novel per six-week grading period, plus a couple of optional choices for extra cred) at my high school ca. 1970 was what we'd today call "YA" or at least proto-YA; THE PEARL, THE RED PONY, THE GOOD EARTH, DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, and IIRC THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE. Somehow GREAT EXPECTATIONS got into the mix. By tenth grade we had more stamina and experience and books like THE SCARLET LETTER, THE GREAT GATSBY and THE GRAPES OF WRATH were no huge deal except for those who decided they couldn't be bothered. Even today, doesn't THE SCARLET LETTER offer tremendous insights into sexual hypocrisy and the misuse of power? I'd rather have sixteen-year-olds read it than THE HANDMAID'S TALE, not to mention the fact that THE HANDMAID'S TALE is heavily informed by THE SCARLET LETTER -- even Atwood said so.

But--and this is more me and my weakness for quality NF--I am sorry to have missed HIROSHIMA or FAREWELL TO MANZANAR in those years, though I caught them later. I would happily advocate for IN COLD BLOOD (and also MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL, though the latter perhaps for Juniors or Seniors). You've heard of the "buckle on the Bible Belt"? My old H.S. still does not assign CATCHER IN THE RYE because of "those words." Such a departure from reality if parents think their kids aren't being 'exposed to that kind of thing.'

Among the optional Extra Credit books we read were 1984 and UNCLE TOM's CABIN, and I'm grateful for the opportunity. The one I could do without is BRAVE NEW WORLD -- I'm not saying it's just awful, but a teacher has to context all the in-jokes ahead of time, items like 'Our Lord T' and "Saint Freud," and no joke works if you have to explain the punch line retroactively.

[Luke]

The school district I work in is roughly 80% Asian if you go by the student body. Quite a few of the students have English as a second language, and they are very familiar with the intricacies of classics that I have to read with the aid of copious footnotes (Journey to the West, for one). Going by comparative populations of their countries, their experiences are more universal than mine are, and yet I admit to needing help when it comes to engaging with them. I don't find it useful while teaching them to impress the 'universality' of the texts school has them engage with, especially when they're dealing with something as archaic and Anglo vernacular driven as, say, Huck Finn. Indeed, acknowledgement of specific frames of history relative to their own upbringing helps students appreciate the holistic yet disparate nature of a text's reflection of its own specific world. That way, even if they end up hating the book or finding it irrelevant, they've at least acquired a piece of the puzzle. Until the school board allocates more funds to buying books and acknowledges that 'The Joy Luck Club' and seven white dudes from the 1950s and earlier isn't a good balance, this is the best that can be done.

[ALLEN]

You know, if young readers anywhere are so uncomfortable reading outside their own time and place and ethnicity, then why are Sci-Fi and Fantasy so popular? None of us has been to Hogwarts on a steam train, nobody has flown by Pendragon or farmed 'taters on Mars. Yet all these novels have proven very popular.

Seven white dudes from the 1950s is too many (watch out, Holden!). But how about BARREN GROUND, a poor white woman from Virginia who heads north in the 1920s? How about THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD? Is this simply a matter of money for books? I suppose the teacher could assign THE GOOD EARTH, but I for one found it a little condescending.

As for JOY LUCK, teenagers may at least get a chuckle out of the bewildered grandmother who thought she was being accused of coming from "Fukien." How about THE ALIENIST, with a very diverse cast? STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND, which is loaded with "good messages" but highly satiric?

Is NF really anathema? If the fictional Joads from THE GRAPES OF WRATH in all their Scotch-Irish poverty are no longer considered representative of America, what's wrong with I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS -- or MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL? In Illinois the high school Sophomores all read FAREWELL TO MANZANAR and John Hersey's HIROSHIMA. I think that's great on both counts.

Maybe the Asian-American students (second- or third-generation tops, I'm guessing) haven't been taught that the school curriculum has to speak to their needs alone -- maybe they find it interesting to learn about other places and times. And golly, if you feel hostility toward the Joad family just because they are white and born in the USA, you have no soul. But I could leave the Steinbeck out if the replacement is just about as good. It's a matter of balance, I think.

Now this may get me in trouble, but I have to say it. The two immigrant groups who came to this country from overseas (of their free will) and achieved the most in terms of going from rags to the upper-middle class in two or three generations are Central European Jews and Koreans. Is it entirely coincidental that the cultures from which they spring value highly literacy, discipline and learning even if it comes at the expense of athletics, socializing and free expression?

[Greg]

ALLEN wrote: "Brina wrote: "Allen, I've had this conversation on GR before- that at 15 I don't think that most students have the life experiences to enjoy many classics. I believe that most books read should be ..."

I don't know that I'd categorize some of those books as exlusively YA or proto-YA. Possibly more relateable and less difficult to decode than some other classics, but most of them are classics wothy of the title. I actually liked The Good Earth, The Pearl, and The Red Badge of Courage quite a bit - some depth to each of them in my opinion.

I do think it makes a huge difference how books are taught, how much background and how much interest the teacher has in the material. But not every book will appeal to every reader. Certain sorts of books will connect with some personalities more than others - I think a mix of sensibilities can be helpful: introspective vs sociological, etc.

Books that can be enjoyed with a surface reading as well as on a deeper level might be easier at first. Some books like To Kill a Mockingbird can be very easily understood with a surface reading and a little background history, even if there's more to get. Other books like The Great Gatsby yield pretty much nothing on a surface reading - like an iceberg, 90% of the book is below the surface; a wonderful, wonderdul book but not an easy one to fully "get."

I don't know what's best for schools. Students at some point need to be taught to read at a deeper level for their future success. But killing the love of reading is obviously not good either.

But one thing I think doesn't work at all: taking an "easy" book with not much going on below the surface and trying to over-analyze it as though it were a classic. My nephew's school did that with The Lightning Thief, a perfectly good book for what it is, but the tortured backflips they had to do to analyze it from the standpoint of every literary term made him hate it forever! He told me he felt the way they were over-analyzing it was preposterous, and I think he was right. The things they were trying to teach didn't make sense. Deep psychological motivations and symbolism aren't right for every book. Most classics have a great deal of "meat" to them - that's why a deeper analysis makes sense.

Also, completely agree with Aubrey when she says: "Indeed, acknowledgement of specific frames of history relative to their own upbringing helps students appreciate..."

[ALLEN]

Well said. Yes, I got my undies into a bit of a twirl with my own non-YA, YA bargle. I should have explicitly made the point that "YA" as a marketing moniker didn't exist in 1970--perhaps it did by 1980.

I've read THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE twice and liked it better the second time than the first. IMNSHO school boards that have "banned' it supposedly due to being pro-war or pro-violence are more interested in establishing new and more arbitrary shibboleths than in finding things their own teachers can understand and teach. I think the students "get it" -- it's about growing up, specifically becoming a man, but I don't personally think it would be off-putting to young women, either.

[Lynn, New School Classics]

No book is loved by all students. Teachers like some books and not others, and from day to day might or might not like a certain book....like all of us. Teachers get tired of their books, especially the 10th or 12th time it's read. Teachers rarely have the autonomy to choose what is in the curriculum. But we were all taught to read by someone...and to write....and to reason. I spent all day in in-service. There are five more days to go. The one statement I read here that I really agree with is that we often ask students to read things well beyond their emotional maturity levels.

[ALLEN]

It must be a real tug-of-war: teachers often asking students to read things well beyond their emotional maturity levels, and parents wanting the little snowflakes to remain little and cute.
Where I grew up, the buzz phrase "You're not letting a kid be a kid (kee-yud)" is code for "Don't let them outpace me." Then folks wonder, as my sister does, about why schools turn out "such dummies."

VERY frustrating.

[Terris]

Cynda wrote: "I loved most of Austen, particularly Persuasion

Disliked The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Afraid to Read Dracula by [author..."

I also did not enjoy the House of the Seven Gables, but I definitely think you should read Dracula! It took me a couple of tries to get started, but once I got into it I really enjoyed it.
I personally think that books like Dracula and Frankenstein need to be read because the movies have messed around with them so much that a person needs to read the book to get back to the original character and story. Good luck!

[Greg]

ALLEN wrote: "Well said. Yes, I got my undies into a bit of a twirl with my own non-YA, YA bargle. I should have explicitly made the point that "YA" as a marketing moniker didn't exist in 1970--perhaps it did by..."

Thanks Allen :)

And that's fascinating about The Red Badge of Courage! - the depictions of death and the horrors of the Civil War are so searing in it; I would have thought anti-war would be a more likely complaint. But I supose it's like people getting confused and thinking The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is racist because it accurately depicts his culture's racism. It's so fascinating the way things are taken.

I liked your plug for Hiroshima by the way - such a moving book! - I am not a big non-fiction reader but that one moved me very much.

[ALLEN]

A buddy of mine, before his retirement, taught at J.S. Hersey High in Arlington Heights, Illinois. It is pretty amazing book. So much happened because one woman turned her head to talk to a co-worker . . .

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name]

Saw this thread for the first time tonight!
Ok let's see...

Loved it: East of Eden

Hated it: ANYTHING by Jack London please don't make me read him I've been scarred for life

Afraid of: War and Peace

Conquered it: Don Quixote

[ALLEN]

I didn't like EAST OF EDEN the book, either. I saw the movie, once. It drags, too, but not as much as the book. It was the last of the three James Dean movies I saw in which he starred.

(REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, now THAT'S a fine movie.
GIANT was pretty good, IMO.)

[Laurie]

BAM, War and Peace is a great book and despite the length, nothing to be afraid of. As long as you can keep track of the various nicknames, you will be good to go. Don Quixote was a greater challenge, IMO.

[Newly]

love east of Eden.

[PinkieBrown]

Loved it:
Adam Bede- George Eliot. The nugget of harsh truth at the heart of the story delineates these characters so they have stayed with me. Hetty Sorrel is a great tragic figure and feels to me like a precursor to Tess; if Hardy did base his career on Adam Bede as it seems, he made a good choice.

Hated it:
Turn of the Screw- Henry James. And The Innocents is a terrific film! Turns a short story into torture; quite a feat. Given it’s a genre piece it’s amazing how ponderous and pompous it is. Any longer and I would have defenestrated it.

Scared:
Ulysses- James Joyce. Irrational fear based on very little information. 😳

Conquered:
Naked Lunch- William Burroughs. Stream of consciousness writing won’t seem like such a challenge after you’ve tried stream of unconsciousness!
Nostromo- Joseph Conrad. A difficult place to start with Conrad that could have put me off him but turned out to be the hump necessary to get over with him. It’s written by turns as biography, historical document, reportage, multiple POV and as a typically exhaustive character study. It expects you to keep up. Buried at its heart is this gorgeous action set piece out at sea which is classic Conrad. I love classics that make you work and then reward you with little treats of action or plot.

[ALLEN]

PinkieBrown wrote: "Loved it:
Adam Bede- George Eliot. The nugget of harsh truth at the heart of the story delineates these characters so they have stayed with me. Hetty Sorrel is a great tragic figure and feels to m..."

PinkieBrown, I'm glad you made the point that THE TURN OF THE SCREW may be disliked by some people (like you and me) who enjoyed the movie it's based upon, THE INNOCENTS.

[Maggie the Muskoka Library Mouse]

1. Loved It: Vanity Fair
2. Hated It: Brave New World
3. Afraid to Read It: Atlas Shrugged
4. Conquered It: Les Misérables

[Cynda]

1. loved it: The Trojan Women
2. hated it: Spenser Fairie Queene Oxford University Press
3. afraid to read it: Les Misérables
4. conquered it: Moby-Dick, or, the Whale

Had to watch the 1971 movie and watch the play The Trojan Women to make sense of the chorus of desperate women.

When I hate a classic book, I have to re-read and do research about it someday. There is something I am not understanding. So it is with the Fairie Queen.

I am scared to read Les Mis and so want to read Les Mis, both.

I saw, I read, I conquered Moby-Dick.

[Ryan]

1. Loved it: The Trial
2. Hated it: The Crying of Lot 49
3. Afraid to read it: Ulysses
4. Conquered it: 2666

[Darren]

ooh, haven't done this since 2017, so since then:
1. Loved it: Life: A User's Manual
2. Hated it: Stranger in a Strange Land
3. Afraid to read it: Les Mis (me too!)
4. Conquered it: Gravity's Rainbow

[DaytimeRiot]

I could do any number of these several times over...


1. LOVED it: The Magic Mountain
2. Hated it with a violent passion: The Color Purple
3. Afraid to read: Clarissa (that's a damn long book) & Anniversaries (long and German)
4. Conquered it: The Portrait of a Lady / The Wings of the Dove (Henry bloody James...), The Man Without Qualities & Berlin Alexanderplatz (both of which were great)
& 5. Want to conquer: the Zibaldone of Giacomo Leopardi. Literally, the work of a lifetime and a genius at that.

A little surprised with all the fear of Les Mis. One of the great, all-encompassing reading experiences of my life. Hugo is gonna Hugo: abandon all expectations, let it flow, and there really is nothing to be afraid of.

[Terry]

Loved it: So many, but Lonesome Dove, The Nightingale, of course Pride and Prejudice, and House of Mirth.
Hated it: Lincoln in the Bardo.
Conquered it: Swann’s Way was the most difficult for me. Also The Ambassadors.
Afraid to Read: Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake.
Want to conquer: Passage to India, East of Eden.

[Terry]

Aubrey, if Faulkner intimidates you, try reading As I Lay Dying. It’s a quick way to ease into Faulkner.

[Terry]

Oops, I think the message about Faulkner should have been addressed to Brina.

[Luke]

Terry wrote: "Aubrey, if Faulkner intimidates you, try reading As I Lay Dying. It’s a quick way to ease into Faulkner."

Ha ha, no worries. I took a break from Faullkner after getting The Sound and the Fury, Light in August, and Go Down, Moses under my belt, but I still have Absalom, Absalom! waiting for me to get the incentive for it.

[Kathleen]

Great idea to update this! Here's my latest extreme classics experiences:

Loved it - Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. Can't wait to read more Hardy now!

Hated it: Utopia by Thomas More. Couldn't finish this one. (So out of spite, I am now reading Wolf Hall)

Afraid to read it: Let's just say I was afraid of the work that would have been involved in reading The Divine Comedy with depth as I should have, so opted to breeze through it for the poetry instead.

Conquered it: Oh, this has to be The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. Yes, I did! And I liked it too. :-)

[Cynda]

I deleted my answer from the other day. Kathleen, you reminded of some truer, more recent, answers.

1. Loved It: In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose
2. Hated It: The Iliad (Still I have read it 4 times.)
3. Afraid to Read: More of the The Divine Comedy (I've only read Inferno)
4. Conquered: Inferno

[Lynn, New School Classics]

I am thinking back on 2019 and restricting my list to that year. I always list too many books!


1. Loved It: The Time Traveler's Wife, A Christmas Memory, The Catcher in the Rye, The Razor's Edge, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories and a reread of Jane Eyre.
2. Hated It: I would say mildly disliked rather than hated - Days Without End
3. Afraid to Read: More of the The Divine Comedy - I really need to get to work on this!
4. Conquered: Gulliver's Travels It started out well and just didn't quite know when to end.

[Pillsonista]

This looks like fun!

1. Loved It: So many... The Sleepwalkers by Hermann Broch.

The former Austro-Hungarian Empire had so much literary talent that it was literally too much for the individual countries to handle (much to America's eternal benefit).

2. Hated It: Yeah, gotta go with The Color Purple. Straight up awful.

When it was assigned to us in high school I refused to write the final report on it because it was such a contemptuous waste of my time, and I told our teacher so. Obviously she flunked me for that assignment, but I was proud to take the F.

Oh, and Infinite Jest. You're not Joyce, dude. Get over it.

3. Afraid: Finnegan's Wake. Seriously, there's only so much time in a person's life (unless you're Harold Bloom, RIP)...

4. Conquered: Clarissa. Now that is one long book.

[Grace Siyu]

loved: The Idiot, Paradise Lost + so many not sure which ones to list
hated: The Stranger
afraid to read: War and Peace (even though i think i'll like it - it's just sooo big) & the rest of the Divine Comedy (read Inferno)
conquered: The Name of the Rose, Gone with the Wind, Gulliver's Travels (not long but it took me FOREVER i even feel asleep at one point), Catch-22

[Rachel]

Loved
The Odyssey-I believe it was a shortened version in a class textbook, but I loved it, so I hope to read the full version within the next 12 months.
1984-Although I didn't like the ending.
Hated
Animal Farm- At this point though, I'm not sure how I would feel about it. I originally read it for a class in middle school, approximately ten years ago. I am now in college with a better appreciation of the classics and more "refined" literature.
Romeo and Juliet-I'm not sure which version, but it was part of a class textbook, so it was shorter. After reading the approx 25-page edition, we then watched the movie. I'm currently confused as to why we watched it since we didn't read the whole book. Although it may have had to do with comparing the "book" and the movie.
Afraid to Read-Gone with the Wind- A very long book from my least favorite genre, Romance.
Conquered:
Very few
1984-I finished it this year. I believe it is the first full-length classic that I read and completed by myself (i.e., not for a class).

[Ila]

This seems like a cool thread...
Loved it:
Embers: This one was my introduction to Hungarian literature and my God true to its name, it will burn you up with its ferocity and deft observations.

All Quiet on the Western Front and The Road Back: The quintessential anti-war books which left me reeling with war's brutal reality.

The Vienna Melody: A gem of a book that expertly captures a tumultuous quarter of a century in Vienna with respect to a family.

Othello: I truly fell in love with Shakespeare with Othello.

Wuthering Heights: The best Gothic tale of all.

Amok and Other Stories: Stefan Zweig man, devastating prose, perfect pacing, unusual wit...he had it all.

Hated it: East of Eden
Lolita

Afraid to read it: Swann's Way
The Master and Margarita Conquered it

Conquered it: Waiting for Godot (one of the most boring books ever)

[Darren]

Ila - no need to be afraid of Master & Margarita - it is a fantastic roller-coaster of a read - great fun/entertaining - the problem is understanding it! (I didn't, but still gave it 5 Stars!) - it's right near the top of my Re-Read Pile, so I'll be giving it another go myself soon
P.S. I just checked our Compare Books rating and it's 79% so you can trust me on this ;o)

[Luke]

My most recent round of this:

Loved It: Marcella - Mary Augusta Ward
Hated It: Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak
Afraid to Read It: Pilgrimage (in its entirety) - Dorothy M. Richardson
Conquered It - Three Kingdoms - Luo Guanzhong

[Wreade1872]

1. loved it: To the Lighthouse
2. hated it: Transit by Anna Seghers
3. afraid to read it: Ulysses
4. conquered it: The Journey to the West

My latest. I was reminded of this topic because i'm considering Ulysses for my Unquel (a word i made up) achievement next year.

Unquel: A work significantly related (usually unofficially) to a previous work by a different author. A synonym for fan-fiction basically.

[J_BlueFlower]

Darren wrote: "Ila - no need to be afraid of Master & Margarita - it is a fantastic roller-coaster of a read - great fun/entertaining - the problem is understanding it! "

I completely agree. You can easily enjoy the roller-coaster part without understanding all details. Perhaps try to just keep an eye on how little Woland does. Having read The Brothers Karamazov first may add some to the philosophical part, but it is not important.

[Ila]

J_BlueFlower wrote: "Darren wrote: "Ila - no need to be afraid of Master & Margarita - it is a fantastic roller-coaster of a read - great fun/entertaining - the problem is understanding it! "

I completely agree. You c..."

Thanks for the motivation but seeing as I recently finished reading it, I'm still wondering what it was all about. Satan is interesting but sadly the others weren't.

Definitely conquered it though. Yay!