EDIT:

For me, the appeal is in the interplay of the ultra paranoid and cynical life in the Stalinist USSR and the supernatural and goofy exploits of the Devil and his entourage who happen to visit Moscow.

The love story between the two main human characters is just the icing on the cake, but in my opinion not that important.

Not to mention that the "book within the book" about Pontius Pilate provided an entertaining intro to one of the fundamental Biblical stories for the atheist me, although now I tend to skip it when I re-read the book every once in a while.

EDIT2: Forgot to mention that the style it is written in (in Russian) is unique; it's very tongue-in-cheek: respectful to the established order and authorities on the surface but derisively satirical underneath. Nobody else wrote like that.

Hmm, yes, I do agree that it is interesting to see how everyone reacts to accusations of "holding foreign currency", but I think I'm missing most of the humour because I just don't know what it was like to live in a Stalinist sociopolitical climate.

I did enjoy the sub-book about Pontius Pilate indeed, and I also agree that the style feels very unique. I think the story with the Devil is just an excuse to orchestrate these unique situations and write the satirical/subversive reactions. I think that's what I don't like, the disjointed narrative without much of an arc, because I'm missing most of the subtext that is the payoff for the scenes.

Bulgakov's writings, if discovered, would have lead to him being executed. To people who lived in the system, their was an unacknowledged understanding that something bad was happening as people would mysteriously disappear on a regular basis. The movie "The Inner Circle" ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103838/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_p... ) and "Burnt By The Sun" ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111579/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 ) are good depictions of what life was like during those times. It makes the high anxiety and paranoia of most characters in M & M much more understandable.

Bulgakov and his writings were well known to the authorities.

I think this is a bit of a red herring - the book is funny throughout and the humour is not dependent on a deep knowledge of the sociopolitical climate (which, incidentally, was not yet quite 'Stalinist'). I first read it in my mid-teens (in Russian) and didn't catch a bunch of that stuff either - but it was funny. Just like you don't need to know an awful lot about 19th century Britain to grasp the wry tone and irony in Austen or Dickens.

Try reading the Burgin/O'Connor translation and see how it goes. It's possible it might still not work for you but an audiobook of some unknown translation is an unfortunately pessimal way to approach this particular work - you're now dealing with not one but two layers of interpretation of a difficult-to-translate book.

Maybe I just spent too much time looking for an overarching plot instead of enjoying the ludicrous situations.

But the speakers are first-rate, especially Koroviev in a gorgeous Austrian dialect.

But I cannot find the download link. br.de is simply impossible to use. I've downloaded it a few months ago, and I remember it was difficult to find then, as well.

It's hard to answer this question. Is there any Russian literature you've read and enjoyed?

I'm afraid I haven't read much other Russian literature, as I prefer scifi, so the closest I got to the Eastern bloc is Lem...

I think my main problem with Master and Margarita is that I don't know much about the context of the era, and it feels like most of the book is subtle jabs at the society and political climate of the time.

I'm not sure it would work in translation though - as the plot goes, it would be kind of simple, especially for our 21th century eyes, but the inimitable Bulgakov style adds a lot.

Kevin Moss's site linked upthread is a good place to start for context that may make you retroactively enjoy the book more.

Who could be other contenders?

Solzh? Iskander? Rasputin? Nabokov?

The Faculty of Useless Knowledge? Life and Fate? Moscow - Petushki?