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robferg95's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
edders's review
5.0
This colossal collection of Nabokov's short stories is breathtaking in intensity and creativity. I remember loving the style of Lolita (the only other piece of Nabokov's writing I've read) but finding the subject quite unsettling and disturbing. Though there are dark moments to these stories, mundane life and unpleasant surprises, sinister ends and grim people... there are also beautiful moments, and everything here is delivered in that same style that is unique to Nabokov (of what I've read so far), very sonorous and mellifluous and quite like sibilant poetry, sometimes when you aren't expecting it.
Not something you can read fast, because trying to start another story immediately is a wrench to the senses after being (always) immersed in the previous one.
Not something you can read fast, because trying to start another story immediately is a wrench to the senses after being (always) immersed in the previous one.
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