Is that the version you are reading? I'm not 100% sure about this, but I believe this version (link) is the only complete version available in English. Maybe someone else knows the whole story, but I think there were some additional pieces of the manuscript found more recently and just translated. I'm going off a vague recollection here so maybe I'm way off and confusing it with something else. Anyways, enjoy. It is an absolutely remarkable work of art. I understand that it is becoming widespread in college literature classes. I hope this is true, because this novel is the crown jewel of underground soviet literature, which is incredibly under-appreciated and under-examined IMO. This book is not only hilarious but is a brilliant insight into the backwardness of soviet mentality and Stalinism. Naturally knowing a little history makes it easier to understand, but even if you don't know anything about Russian history its a funny and though provoking book.
Finished this damn fine memoir by my Appalachian homey, Chris Offutt Also, while preparing for my class on the Beat Generation next spring, I read this for the first time: A collection of essays and recollections of poets and critics coming across Howl. Some pretty good, a couple steaming piles of crap.
Agreed 100%...you should really only read the copy that you linked to. I was a Russian Studies major in college, which included taking a couple of Russian lit courses and my favorite book out of all the ones we read was this one. It was drilled into our heads by our (rather eccentric) professors that this was the best English version, not just because it's the most complete but the translation itself is very well done. Absolutely love the style and use of symbolism in switching back and forth between the "current day" (at the time it was written) story and the story of Pontius Pilate. Bulgakov's "Heart of a Dog" is a good read too if you like his style. Not as good as The Master and Margerita, but it's pretty short and good if you're looking for something to read quickly.
Yeah, I have the Penguin Pevear/Volokhonsky translation, which claims to be from Bulgakov's widow's 1963 typescript. I may check out the other version after I finish. Thanks for the info.
I am reading, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max It is probably the funniest book I have ever read, I laugh outloud every story.
I just started reading "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins I have just read so far a third of the book,but have found it quite interesting and even fun at times. Highly recommended!
Read several of Reilly's books, then stopped part way through one of them, and have never gone back. To me, his plots just really began to stretch my level of willing suspension of disbelief.
Same thing happened to me when I was reading Area 7. I thought the plot was ridiculous...but I went back a year later and finished it. It ended up being pretty good.
Rethinking Thin by Gina Kolata. Good summary of some of the more surprising results in recent years from the field of "obesity research"
It got pretty technical at times, but it looks like that 1) obesity might be genetic, so that people who tend to be overweight will, if the conditions are right, be overweight. They can probably fight off seriously morbid obesity, but they're going to be sicker if they make themselves conform to the what the actuarial tables say they ought to weigh. One of the researchers says its like height: there is nothing one can do to control one's height, BUT certain conditions allow people to reach their full height. When food is abundant, people who tend to put on weight will put on weight -- they can limit the damage by getting exercise and by not eating crap foods, but they're not going to be thin. Some research even suggests that, in terms of mortality, being overweight is statistically safer. The statisticians say that it's not a bell curve, but a U curve, with the higher ends being the extremely underweight and the extremely overweight, who have a higher mortality rate. Someone who's just overweight, chunky, but active, has a pretty good survival rate, statistically speaking.. So, if I'm reading it correctly, we really don't know what's going on here. The received wisdom that fat=death may still hold true, but there's lots of research that's complicating that issue. I would also point out that, as New York Times reporters go, she's pretty darn cute. edit: here's an article I just found this second that deals with some of the topics: http://www.printthis.clickability.c.../nymag.com/news/sports/38001/&partnerID=73272