“The absurd alone triumphs here, and this Kafka-like setting offers laughter and nods of understanding.”

More satirical attack on early Soviet bureaucracy than science fiction, Bulgakov–apparently enjoying himself a great deal–spins a H G Wells-ian tale about a science experiment gone very wrong.

It’s a short read, offering just the tightly-narrated essentials: one myopically stubborn and ethical biologist, his faithful but overwrought assistant, his also faithful but too accepting wife, and a bevy of corrupt journalists, corrupt and supercilious bureaucrats, antiquated and often negligent military, and superstitious and impulsive citizenry. What could possibly save them?

The absurd alone triumphs here, and this Kafka-like setting offers laughter and nods of understanding. The early Soviet machine may have been absurdly opaque and nonsensical, but Bulgakov’s criticisms ring too accurate to our contemporary lives.