Something has been lost in the inter-connectivity of the modern world. The distances that used to separate us physically, created emotional gulfs that also separated us. One of the strongest themes in Lonesome Dove is how the actual physical size and landscape of the American West created this kind of emotional distance. Even yesterday as my girlfriend and I were having an unofficial anniversary dinner, we got on the topic of the weeks and months leading up to our meeting three years ago. This isn’t an […]
My first recollection of Timofey Pnin is connected with a speck of coal dust that entered my left eye
Here’s an older Nabokov talking about the best American novels: I show you this to get a sense of his voice and his mannerisms. In this short novel, we are introduced to a Russian professor named Timofey Pnin, who immigrated to the US to teach at a small liberal arts college in New England in the 1940s. The novel starts off with Pnin getting a train to report to a conference where he has been enlisted to give a talk. In a way not unlike To […]
In a way this novel has the same plot as Secret of My Success
So basically this is about a youngish wife of an older and vulgar husband seducing his young nephew and not only cuckolding him, but attempting to dislodge him/murder him. See, basically the same thing. It’s not really, especially since this novel predates the movies about 60 years and also because that’s an absurdly stupid comparison. Sigh, oh well. It’s kind of easy to tell that this is an early novel of his. It’s not that it feel incomplete or undone in any way, but it […]
A Baker’s Dozen
Nabokov wrote a ton. He lost the Nobel Prize in a weird year where two judges essentially gave it to each other, but he is easily one of if not the most important and impressive writers of the 20th century, if not ever. He’s mostly known for Lolita of course, which you should read immediately, and like a lot of author’s whose most (in)famous book overshadows a lot of his career, his other great books and stories get overlooked. He wrote supremely in two very different […]
Lol-lee-ta. And other such shenanigans.
Anytime I mentioned that I’d never read Vladimir Nabokov’s iconic and controversial classic, Lolita, I get gasps of amazement. Apparently, it’s one of those you-have-to-read-it-for-bragging-rights kind of books. So I decided it was high time to read it. I don’t want to give anything away for those of you who have not read the book but intend to at some point. But here’s the basic premise: Humbert Humbert is a European, having put behind a marriage and an academic career. His obsession with nymphets, girls […]