Pedestrian Gods
Warm yes, and a little dangerous too.
Yes, and maybe a few chapter notes beside you helps. I used that trick with another difficult book, and suddenly the confusion felt less like failure and more like the author having a plan.
Not always a kind plan, but still a plan.
That is a clever way to enter it, and maybe less intimidating too.
I would still keep a notebook, because Bulgakov likes to let one scene haunt the next like a song you cannot stop hearing.
Yes, and the cat is almost like a little alarm bell for the whole book. The jokes make the harder questions sneak in quietly.
