Arrggh ... VN

[Douglas Holm]

Pnin is probably Nabokov's most "human" book (with Ada and its  successors the least). Few literary "tricks" except for maybe when the malapropy-in-English Pnin speaks "Russia" to contemporaries, his speech is marvelous.  Like two different guys.  The U of Washington Press has a book about the man who supposedly inspired Pnin.  The novel (really a set of short stories) makes a fine company piece to Pale Fire, in setting, and psychology.  Add to that Speak Memory, and one has a deeply compassionate trilogy of books on statelessness (among other things).

Knopf is publishing a new collection of Nabokov interviews, letters, and essays in a couple of weeks, edited by Brian Boyd.  

By the way, the new novel, The Revisionaries by A R Moxon  from Melville House, is publicized as Pynchonesque, but glancing inside it seems more Wallace and Gaddis, and probably several more I don't recognize. 

> On Nov 8, 2019, at 10:37 AM, Laura Kelber <laurakelber at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Picked up a copy of Pnin at my local bookseller today. I'll be reading it
> at my own leisurely rate, but will definitely comment here, with spoiler
> warnings, when moved to.
>>