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Darwin8u's Reviews > Pale Fire
Pale Fire
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“All the seven deadly sins are peccadilloes but without three of them, Pride, Lust, and Sloth, poetry might never have been born.�
� Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire
One of the funniest, most absurdly brilliant books I've ever read. I find it amazing that Nabokov would have written this novel (which oddly is a haunting retelling of my life story) without mentioning me by name at all. There must be a reason for this. Perhaps Nabokov was trying to not just protect me, but my whole family from the fame and pain that would no doubt have accompanied the public's inquisitiveness and the critics' vampirism if this information had been made plain and obvious. That is what I love about Nabokov. He is a gentle ghost of a poet that exists in many levels and in many times and in many spaces simultaneously. I think his integrity in lying about and hiding my influence is both beautiful and nobel and certainly shaking with a heterosexual, Russian poet's naiveté.
� Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire
One of the funniest, most absurdly brilliant books I've ever read. I find it amazing that Nabokov would have written this novel (which oddly is a haunting retelling of my life story) without mentioning me by name at all. There must be a reason for this. Perhaps Nabokov was trying to not just protect me, but my whole family from the fame and pain that would no doubt have accompanied the public's inquisitiveness and the critics' vampirism if this information had been made plain and obvious. That is what I love about Nabokov. He is a gentle ghost of a poet that exists in many levels and in many times and in many spaces simultaneously. I think his integrity in lying about and hiding my influence is both beautiful and nobel and certainly shaking with a heterosexual, Russian poet's naiveté.
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Reading Progress
March 6, 2011
– Shelved
April 13, 2012
–
Started Reading
April 14, 2012
– Shelved as:
2012
April 14, 2012
– Shelved as:
aere-perennius
April 14, 2012
–
Finished Reading
August 18, 2013
– Shelved as:
100-mccaffery
August 18, 2013
– Shelved as:
100-modern-library
Comments Showing 1-8 of 8 (8 new)
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message 1:
by
Lyn
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Nov 11, 2015 06:07PM
great review
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Lyn wrote: "great review"Thanks. Someone liked it a bit ago and I re-read it. The book. THE book. Oh, my, GOD, the book.
Brilliant in spots, yes, absurd in others, yes - but the most absurdly brilliant?Funny, yes - but the funniest?
Nabokov - gentle and naive?
But I do think I saw your influence, screened though it may have been - those 8 windars through which u watched the shades in their heydays..
Fionnuala wrote: "Brilliant in spots, yes, absurd in others, yes - but the most absurdly brilliant?Funny, yes - but the funniest?
Nabokov - gentle and naive?
But I do think I saw your influence, screened though it..."
Ha, I stand on the razor of my estimation. But I am also fully vested in my Nabokov love. I've dropped too much time and attention to not hold that white Russian flag in my teeth to the very end.
"I find it amazing that Nabokov would have written this novel (which oddly is a haunting retelling of my life story) without mentioning me by name at all. " Haha, brilliant. :D
Elin wrote: ""I find it amazing that Nabokov would have written this novel (which oddly is a haunting retelling of my life story) without mentioning me by name at all. " Haha, brilliant. :D"
Yes, enjoyed. Thanks!
HBalikov wrote: "Elin wrote: ""I find it amazing that Nabokov would have written this novel (which oddly is a haunting retelling of my life story) without mentioning me by name at all. " Haha, brilliant. :D"
Yes..."
Thank you Elin and HBalikov
One of the greatest novels of our time.
