The Master and Margarita

Abandoned; it just wasn't working for me. I usually like the Slavic sly-wink writing style, that little ironic edge where the author brings you in on a shared joke: Balys Sruoga, Milan Kundera, even Solzhenitsyn made it work beautifully. Here, it feels heavyhanded, like the author just thinks the reader is stupid and wants to use a bludgeon to make sure his irony is clear. (Maybe that's part of the joke; if so, I'm not smart enough to get it, and that's OK).