Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
funny
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I believe Sheila put it best by saying "on long nights alone I fear that I am him"
As always Nobakov's exquisitely beautiful prose dazzled and enchanted me. Pnin is a novel about a naive and sincere Russian émigré professor stuck in a toxic American workplace. Pnin reminded me of Prince Myshkin from Dostoevsky's The Idiot. The titular character was absolutely adorable. I have a soft spot for pathetic losers. My favorite scene was the one where Pnin identifies himself with the injured bird and breaks down in tears. Even in a world where naivety and sincerity equals idiocy, and is more than often rewarded with cruelty, hope the Pnins always remain tender hearted.
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
i’ve missed nabokov’s writing but this one in particular made me feel quite stupid. i feel like i’ll need to reread this to fully take in / appreciate the amount of work but into this short and sweet book! pnin was a lovely little man to read about though.
challenging
slow-paced
funny
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Pnin, pnin, pnin!!! I'm still on the fence between the legitimacy of the narrator's claims or Pnin's refusal (or rather inability) to recount his past. I'm leaning towards the first. Pnin defender for life.
“The mosquitoes were getting bothersome. Time for tea. Time for a game of chess with Chateau. That strange spasm was over, one could breathe again.”
“I am not handsome, I am not interesting, I am not talented. I am not even rich. But, Lise, I offer you everything I have, to the last blood corpuscular, to the last tear, everything… I may not achieve happiness, but I know I shall do everything to make you happy. I want you to write poems.”
Perhaps the most sympathetic protagonist of all time… Oh, Timofey, I care you. (Also— Nabokov is funny??)
“I am not handsome, I am not interesting, I am not talented. I am not even rich. But, Lise, I offer you everything I have, to the last blood corpuscular, to the last tear, everything… I may not achieve happiness, but I know I shall do everything to make you happy. I want you to write poems.”
Perhaps the most sympathetic protagonist of all time… Oh, Timofey, I care you. (Also— Nabokov is funny??)
What can you say about Pnin that hasn’t been said already? It’s Pnin! Well it’s a sorta story about a charmingly goofy Russian professor who has some trouble making it to a meeting, staying in boarding houses and dealing with women. It’s wonderfully written and basically funny and light. There a quick verve into a sad holocaust memory towards the end and then it’s revealed that the narrator is the guy who is screwing Pnin over at his job. A bit of a highfalutin shrug from me. Like most non-jack reacher works of fiction, it probably went over my head.
Vaguely disappointing. I was expecting something along the lines of Pale Fire, but Pnin was lacking the brilliant satire and unreliable narrator that made that book brilliant. Instead, it is a tepid tale of the pathetic but gentle Pnin and his life as a teacher in a small, Eastern college in the 50s. The story is told in mostly unrelated vignettes, whose main point seems to be to make fun of Pnin's faulty English, sentimentality, and general cluelessness. All of which left me cold and unimpressed.
The one interesting aspect of the book is the last chapter, when the undisclosed narrator takes up the tale. We are left with some interesting questions (who is the narrator? why does Pnin appear to dislike him, when one of his defining characteristics is that he likes everybody? what do we really know about Pnin, given his tale is told by a removed, unknown, and disliked narrator?), but they are not dealt with and, for me, it was a case of "too little, too late".
This is my 4th Nabakov and I think I have reached the conclusion that Pale Fire was amazing and everything else, not so much. I doubt I will be reading any more of his works.
The one interesting aspect of the book is the last chapter, when the undisclosed narrator takes up the tale. We are left with some interesting questions (who is the narrator? why does Pnin appear to dislike him, when one of his defining characteristics is that he likes everybody? what do we really know about Pnin, given his tale is told by a removed, unknown, and disliked narrator?), but they are not dealt with and, for me, it was a case of "too little, too late".
This is my 4th Nabakov and I think I have reached the conclusion that Pale Fire was amazing and everything else, not so much. I doubt I will be reading any more of his works.