Master and Margarita Online

Found a website today, built in the Russian constructivist style, about that formative novel of my youth, The Master and Margarita. Pound for pound, I say this is one of the best novels ever written. It's got everything: good, evil, a love interest, the rejected artist, debasement of the currency, and a talking cat. It's funny and deeper than most "serious" novels. The website doesn't have a plot summary, but there is a decent one at Amazon, or you could read the Cliff's Notes, or the Critical Companion. But hell, it's only 300 pages - start with the novel, and when you confused let the Middlebury site sort you out.

As long we're talking about Depression-era novels about people in oppressed countries toiling in obscurity to be the Greatest Writer Ever, I supposed we should mention At Swim-Two-Birds (excerpt here). Joyce thought Flann O'Brien was the best comic writer he'd ever read. I'd argue O'Brien is more worth reading than Joyce. His books are both funnier and darker. I don't recommend The Third Policeman (which he withheld and was not published until after his death) unless you want to feel really bad for a long time.

It is an indefensibly intuitive connection, but when I think of these works I also think of The Natural, which appeared later (1952) in a freer and richer country. Perhaps that is why Malamud goes lighter on the religious symbolism than the other two authors, although the preoccupation with the nature of evil is deeply comparable:

Through the nausea Roy remembered an old saying. He quoted, "Woe unto him who calls evil good and good evil."

The Natural, I learned this week, is based on a true story.

So, three books from three dramatically different cultures, about the gift of talent, being a loser, and the nature of evil. All written by technically masterful novelists who have not received the recognition they deserved.

Now I think of a topic for my Engish thesis!