After 4.5 months, I finally finished reading The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Just a couple of weeks ago I was ranting to a friend how I felt like the book was good yet I didn't think I was smart enough to understand what Bulgakov was trying to say with it. The story seemed all over the place, without a key plot. I mean, I got that it was a satire about Soviet Russia, but I didn't understand the meaning of it - like the reason why Bulgakov wrote it, or rather, what he was trying to convey with it. And I was afraid that the story wouldn't have a solid ending.
And now, having read the whole thing, it's a coherent, ingenious, hellishly funny, flawless masterpiece.
I still don't know the meaning, though. But somehow that doesn't bother me anymore. And I don't know what to say about the book, what it made me feel, what I learned, but even that's okay.
Or - wait - was it about how everything that happened in the story happen in real life as well? Like a metaphor? That Satan (whatever that refers to) comes, grants everone's wishes, and everything goes to haywire? That to be happy, you must not get everything you want too easily, that struggle is meaning? That you should take good care of your valuable soul?
On a second thought... maybe I learned (or will learn) a lot.
RK
