Welcome to Litsy!

Still processing this, Nabokov‘s 1st English language novel. A biography of an author who died young, written by his younger brother. The subject author has a lot of parallels with VN. But our biographer is a mess. Unreliable narrator, clearly. But what‘s he doing? What‘s he searching for? A little tough to read because VN clowns around, playing with composition. Complex little thing that begs to be reread.

“With something akin to fanatical hate Sebastian Knight was ever hunting out things which has once been fresh and bright but which were now worn to a thread, dead things among living ones; dead things shamming life, painted and repainted, continuing to be accepted by lazy minds serenely unaware of the fraud.”

Morning quotes, 3 of 3 (no pictures)

“They must have had a glorious time together, those two. And it is hard to believe that the warmth, the tenderness, the beauty of it has not been gathered, and is not treasured somewhere, somehow, by some immortal witness of mortal life.”

(I‘m guessing Nabokov as atheist)

Morning quotes, 2 of 3 (no pictures)

“...the bridging of the abyss lying between expression and thought; the maddening feeling that the right words, the only words are awaiting you on the opposite bank in the misty distance, and the shudderings of the still unclothed thought clamoring for them on this side of the abyss.”

Morning quotes, 1 of 3 (no pictures)

Any Pynchon fans? In the introduction (by Michael Didra): “V. travels from England to Switzerland to Germany to France in his quest for the identity of the elusive femme fatale who wrecked his brother‘s life.”

That is practically a synopsis of TP‘s V. !! Turns out Pynchon took classes from VN at Cornell and this novel is huge influence on TP‘s novels V., Gravity‘s Rainbow and more. Turns out a lot of authors adore this. Huh...

This is not your "kick back and relax" weekend read. Nabokov is brilliant, but you always have to pay close attention, you can't even afford to lose one line, otherwise you won't be able to follow/decode what's going on.

"don't be too certain of learning the past from the lips of the present. Remember that what you are told is really threefold: shaped by the teller, reshaped by the listener, concealed from both by the dead man in the tale."

1. Nabokov (if he's too modern, then Dostoevsky ☺️) And I'll go with Margaret Atwood...today.
2. Objectively it's no contest- night alone with books wins, but I do miss the nights out with friends- too few of those these days.
3. I like contemporary the most, but I like to read about all different periods from time to time to keep things interesting.
4. @Dulcinella and @Liz_M if you want to play and haven't.
@GarthRanzz