Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Heart of a Dog
Book Review: Pointed short fiction at its finest
Summary: 5 Stars
This review is for the Mirra Ginsburg translation of the book. If you have read Bulgakov's masterwork, The Master and Margarita, then you know Bulgakov has no qualms with delving into the fantastic and unbelievable. Heart of a Dog is no exception, but the novella form keeps this book to a very neat size, where satire works best.
Clearly in Bulgakov's sights was the socialist "support structure" that was in place at the time. Professor Preobrazhensky provides the best display of anti-soviet sentiment when he rages against "the general rack-and-ruin." Having meetings and sitting around singing songs will do nothing to combat economic downfall. We could learn from that type of logic in our current state of rack-and-ruin.
In this particular printing of the book, there are no frills as far as critiques or introductions, which is a bit disappointing for a story this short. Generally, it is nice to pad out these short novels with some background or discussion. Despite that shortcoming, the book is too good to deserve any less than 5 stars.
Book Review: Some people find it funny
Summary: 5 Stars
Some do, but for ex-soviet people the humanized dog turning into the proletarian and going against his creator is rather sad. You will indeed enjoy the irony and great satire of this early Bulgakov work, especially if you are familiar with Master and Margarita.Book Review: Soviet Satire
Summary: 4 Stars
This satirical dystopian novella was written in 1925 in the Soviet Union and was, not surprisingly, banned there until 1987. A mongrel named Sharik receives a Frankenstein-like transplant from a criminal, and is transformed into a New Soviet Man, a bureaucrat charged with ridding the city of cats.Book Review: Striking
Summary: 4 Stars
Terrifically insightful, if something less than subtle. Bulgakov's genius for satire turns, again, upon the Soviet way of life. In retrospect, not exactly a moving target, but his came early, and displays considerably more insight than most of the others. A quick and humorous read, but lacking in both the scope and the depth of emotion that his "Master and Margarita" attained.Book Review: The Soul of a Political Satirist
Summary: 4 Stars
Tentatively, this is the story of the after-effects of the transplantation of the Brain,Pituitary and testes from a man to a dog. The dog becomes a crass foul mouthed ingrate (but the parts were taken from a criminal...so take that Stephen King).
In reality it is a roman a clef of the expect (by Bulgakov) failure of the Bolshevics to create a "New Soviet Man". For the creation of the new man is still done with the same old faulty parts. Stalin was purported to say that the only way to create the new "Soviet Man" was to get rid of all the old ones (which he made a great try at, killing maybe 40 million or so over thirty years).
Keeping in mind that Bulgakov, was born and educated under the Tsar and lived through WWI and then the Civil War, he understood who and what Russians were. They were a half-civilized, illiterate and superstitious people who had to be dragged kicking and screaming out of the sixteenth century and into the twentieth.
But who says you can't have fun along the way!