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A review by melaniemaksin
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
5.0
I was on something of a Nabokov kick years ago, but according to Goodreads, said kick has been dormant for about six years. Why I chose to read Pale Fire now, I'm not sure, but I think the period of dormancy made me appreciate and admire and enjoy Nabokov all over again.
Words rescued from obscurity (knickknackatory!) and phrases so surprising as to be almost dizzy-making (walked a sick bat like a cripple with a broken umbrella). Characters so larger-than-life weird whose delusions (?) of grandeur, petty grudges, and creepy obsessions can't be contained by the typical novel's structure and spill out instead into a commentary and an index. Nabokov is just really fun to read, and I'm now 100% in agreement with those who consider Pale Fire his best and most Nabokovian.
As a side note: I started out reading this as an ebook, which was hella foolish of me. Future readers, learn from my idiocy! Hold Pale Fire in your hands and read it as it deserves to be read, with much fluttering of pages and back-and-forthing between the poem and the notes.
Words rescued from obscurity (knickknackatory!) and phrases so surprising as to be almost dizzy-making (walked a sick bat like a cripple with a broken umbrella). Characters so larger-than-life weird whose delusions (?) of grandeur, petty grudges, and creepy obsessions can't be contained by the typical novel's structure and spill out instead into a commentary and an index. Nabokov is just really fun to read, and I'm now 100% in agreement with those who consider Pale Fire his best and most Nabokovian.
As a side note: I started out reading this as an ebook, which was hella foolish of me. Future readers, learn from my idiocy! Hold Pale Fire in your hands and read it as it deserves to be read, with much fluttering of pages and back-and-forthing between the poem and the notes.