"the bridge between Vladimir Nabokow and David Foster Wallace"

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

Pale Fire came up on the list, once again. This brought to mind the
review of the Finnish translation of GR, "Painovoiman sateenkaari",
that came out a month ago in Helsingin Sanomat, the leading Finnish
newspaper. http://www.hs.fi/kulttuuri/a1411741137138

When one reads the uniformly poor review, it becomes obvious that the
reviewer hasn't really read either the original or the translation.
He has very little to say about GR itself.

At one point he writes, in a quite patronizing tone, that GR is "said
to form [by whom, I wonder] the bridge between Vladimir Nabokov and
David Foster Wallace". Heh heh.

The reviewer has in mind the novels Pale Fire, Ada, and Infinite Jest.
Nabokov and Wallace are his favorites, not Pynchon: GR lacks Nabokov's
beauty and Wallace's affectiveness. (AFAIK, the guy is working on a
longer study on Wallace, so he may have some vested interest to set up
the boring confrontation between TRP and DWF again.)

What doesn't surprise me at all is that they chose a clown like him to
review GR. The standard of literary reviews in HS is low nowadays.


Heikki


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