Heart of a Dog

Rating:
Summary: Allegory, Mischief and Humor
Review: What a wonderful book! Funny, ascerbic and critical of the Soviet regime, Bulgakov writes an amusing tale that is easy to read, with an obvious message.

The book remains delightfully readable 70 years after it is written - this is a book you will enjoy, not a book you 'should' read.

Rating:
Summary: Good story, bad translation
Review: While there seemed to be a good story here, and it was mildly amusing (though I must admit I know only a little about Soviet Russian history), the translation (by Michael Glenny) was pretty bad. I found it very hard sometimes to follow what was going on, as the point of view seemingly kept changing around at will. Also, the edition I read would have been vastly improved had there been some way (typographically?) to separate out the dog's thoughts from the general narration--as it is they just run together, heightening the translation problems. I hear that the Ginsburg translation is much better, so you may want to read that version instead.