It was all true—I was Pontius Pilate!
5 stars
Quite witty and hard to put down.
Although Bulgakov supposedly intended this piece to be a satire about stifled life under the Soviet State, he also managed to create one of the most surreal and phantasmagorical pieces of literature made. I do not think I appreciated the former as much as I did the latter—I may have to reread; it may be above my wits.
I was preoccupied more with the theological than the political, and in this Bulgakov delivered. It feels like blasphemy to say this, but Bulgakov achieved (through Woland) a character that challenges Christianity almost as potently as Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor.
4.5/5 Only downside to this read is that there’s lots to process and the writing can be jumpy at times…
