Entertainment For Lively Minds
That Book by Nabakov
Posted by peterafifer on 28 November 2011 - 11:53pm.
Well, is it as good as they say? I've got it lined up next. Is it worth the effort?
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I read it years ago
at a Book Club.
Definitely not salacious, but rather dry and funny; which might sound odd given the subject. Worth reading, see what you think.
Brilliant book
Nabokov is one of the greatest prose writers I reckon. I recommend reading Lolita - it's very entertaining and gripping. Really is a classic. Those who think it a bit dodgy can't have read it, cos it's not like that at all.
Terrific writer
Especially when you consider he's not writing in his native language.
I'm told Pale Fire is also excellent.
treat
You are in for a treat, because it's an utterly brilliant book.
Not that this should make a difference, but it seems all the more impressive when you think that he was writing in his third (or was it fourth?) language. An incredible achievement.
Ah
It is a good book, but I found it tough to read, as essentially you are reading about a paedophile. I don't think it's necessary to identify with the protagonist in a book, but I did spend a lot of time just thinking "ugh".
I know Sven G said that means I can't have read it, but I can assure you I have. Do read it though. If you can past the pederasty, and most people can, it is beautifully written and the subjective (unreliable) narration does set it apart.
Bit of an assumption I made
What I meant was it's not dodgy in terms of the author's intentions, as it seemed to me, though some have suggested otherwise.
It's an astonishing book.
All I will say is that the prose is utterly dazzling. It also has what might be my favorite sentence in all literature. It occurs right at the end of part one: up to that point you will have spent most of your time laughing and being dazzled. Nabokov brings things to a screeching halt and very subtly manages to remind you just what a monster Humbert really is. It's a bravura performance and an awe inspiring moment, no mistake.
Pale Fire is equally brilliant. I can also recommend Speak, Memory.
I assume you mean
"T-34 Overhaul and Servicing Procedures (Steppe Variations inc. air filter mods) 1942-1946 - A Field Manual" by Tank Engineer First Class Vasily Nabakov (Орден Красной Звезды)?
It's excellent, though you'll find it hard getting hold of any of the sub-zero condition transmission oil he recommends, as production ceased in 1953.
I believe his second cousin Vlad Nabokov also wrote a yarn or two, but I don't have them in the workshop.
the film
I saw the film adaptation of this. Bill Nighy was very good, but Katie Price was horribly miscast as the young conscript. And she looked much older than 14, IMHO.
Also, there were some glaring errors on the period detail. Everybody knows that on Russian guns, the T at the end means Tankovoye (Танковое) for tanks, and the S means Samohodnoye (Самоходное) for self-propelled, yet they consistently got this the wrong way round. Fucking Hollywood.
The Collected short stories
... Is a brilliant book. After reading Lolita, I'd also recommend that you seek out Christopher Hitchens' brilliant essay Hurricane Lolita.
It appears in his new anthology called Arguably, which is making my commute a brain feast these days.
I can thoroughly recommend Hitch 22, his memoir.
I finished it last week - very good indeed.
Seconded
Hitch 22 is a joy.
Thirded
It's scary though in the way that it forces you to think twice about comfortably heldd positions especially re Iraq and the Falklands.