Welcome to Litsy!

When I read Modernist literature, I feel more empowered than usual to interpret it in exactly the way I want to regardless of the author's intention. I don't pretend to know what Nabokov means with this novel, but I see the many ways in which we are complicit in incarcerating ourselves in a false mode of existence. We are more than advertisers, corporations, and those seeking our votes think, but recognizing this takes awareness and courage.

Is Cincinnatus in perimenopause? Because I can totally relate to this paragraph. The rest of this very Modernist novel-in-translation...I'm not sure.

Our epic Christmas Week rainstorm is rolling in so the lighting is icky, but the cookies are yum. Cookies, coffee, book: The holiday has officially begun at my house.

Based on the title alone, this seems like an appropriate book to read after just finishing We Love You, Bunny.

While at times Invitation to a Beheading is incredibly hilarious, first and foremost it‘s a novel that provokes thought. What is going on? What does Nabokov mean? Which of the many many interpretations does this novel represent?

It‘s reminiscent of Kafka‘s The Trial but more farcical and comedic, which is embodied in the excellent Pierre. Not an easy one to read but a good one.

Bookoutlet got me again 🤷🏻‍♂️ And how dare they entice me with $5 off my next order! Oh well. Looking forward to a lot of them I think maybe Invitation to a Beheading most of all. The Le Carre is one of my favorites of all time so I had to upgrade my copy.

I‘m really enjoying working through Nabokov‘s novels, even if I‘m behind my planned schedule. This goes down as the best and most beautiful so far and one of my favorite books of the year. Nabokov plays with fabric of reality while barely leaving a prison cell inside a fortress, and it works wonderfully (even before dwelling on the maybe Soviet commentary).

The most beautiful book I‘ve ever read. Subversive, poetic, and surreal, the book is a work of art. I love that in reading it you get the feeling that you are reading a nightmare. Soviet life described in a dreamlike quality emphasizes the absurd and arbitrary actions of the state in a way that exposes the true insanity of life under such a structure. #Nabokov

Envy so hard 😮😫

"Cincinnatus, after passing many other doors, stumbled, hopped, and found himself in a small coutryard filled with various parts of the dismantled moon."

This is on the second page.

"it was a hot day, a day that was blue all through"

I can't decide whether to read Invitation to a Beheading.

Choose my August TBR from this list of books I‘ve been meaning to read for ages and never seem to get to. What a great idea from @TheReadingMermaid I created a form to fill out: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSclsFXL6bm_OlFpzfwMmJpVq-x2EiK9iAu7r72t... or you can leave your choice in the comments. I will read the book with the most votes. So fun! #makemereadit

Find me on Goodreads I am also Orangemoosereads over there

"Anguish! The books heaped on the table have all been read."

This is only the second Nabokov I've read (the other being Pnin). Though he had not read Kafka when Invitation was written and refuses to admit to similarities anyone who has read The Trial or the Castle will see the likeness. The fierce strain of satire is common to both, the claustrophobic immanence of fate and the wicked farce of the police state. Nabokov's language is typically dense, playful, elaborate and his characters ridiculous 👇

Hunting for #candycolouredcovered made me realise how dreary the colour scheme of my #libraryhaul is! 😂

The flimsiness of the environment and people surrounding the protagonist, Cincinattus C., flicker around him as he awaits his death. He experiences, hope, fear, and bitter disappointment from the fickle world that condemns him. In an effort to ground himself in reality he reads/ writes without relief. The title explains the tone of this story by the incongruity of something as polite as an invitation to something as gruesome as a beheading.

#bookmail... Can't wait to read this one, it is scheduled for 2017! #tbr