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Ray's Reviews > Speak, Memory
Speak, Memory
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Admittedly, I have only read the one Nabakov and we all know which novel I refer to...
Which is of course a classic masterpiece always worth revisiting and reinterpreting critically.
So I had high hopes for this author's memoirs, and that made it for something of a disappointment. The prose is extremely eloquent, worthy of laugh out louds on occasion, and there is no doubt he is a writer of the highest order.
But the subject matter just didn't include what the fan would have hoped. Don't get me wrong, the backstory detailing the social hierarchies of pre-revolution Russia are very fascinating. His privileged lifestyle, which he certainly does "check", and all the idiosyncrasies of his extended family and education and exile in Western Europe.
With even more depth, he talks of the politics of leftists of the era and his father's writing and death and sparse yet clever takes on every minor character of his life... And yet, he doesn't seem to get that real.
He doesn't talk about his own writer's path nearly enough. A few self-deprecating quips about poetry and affairs just are not sufficient.
Most of all, we want more of Lolita. The inspiration, and the fallout of becoming such a novelist of world renown. Furthermore, about emigrating to America and his years of fame.
It is the author's choice to focus on his earlier life, so that is the book we have. Yet if I am being honest, I just want more.
Which is of course a classic masterpiece always worth revisiting and reinterpreting critically.
So I had high hopes for this author's memoirs, and that made it for something of a disappointment. The prose is extremely eloquent, worthy of laugh out louds on occasion, and there is no doubt he is a writer of the highest order.
But the subject matter just didn't include what the fan would have hoped. Don't get me wrong, the backstory detailing the social hierarchies of pre-revolution Russia are very fascinating. His privileged lifestyle, which he certainly does "check", and all the idiosyncrasies of his extended family and education and exile in Western Europe.
With even more depth, he talks of the politics of leftists of the era and his father's writing and death and sparse yet clever takes on every minor character of his life... And yet, he doesn't seem to get that real.
He doesn't talk about his own writer's path nearly enough. A few self-deprecating quips about poetry and affairs just are not sufficient.
Most of all, we want more of Lolita. The inspiration, and the fallout of becoming such a novelist of world renown. Furthermore, about emigrating to America and his years of fame.
It is the author's choice to focus on his earlier life, so that is the book we have. Yet if I am being honest, I just want more.
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Anthony
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Jul 23, 2021 03:50AM
I have a couple other books by Nabokov on my shelves, but not this one. I might have to add it.
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You might enjoy Paul Russell's 'The Unreal Life of Sergey Vladimirovich Nabokov' - a novel about Vladimir's brother - a real person, fascinating, tragic and by a wonderful and grossly undervalued American author.
Liam wrote: "You might enjoy Paul Russell's 'The Unreal Life of Sergey Vladimirovich Nabokov' - a novel about Vladimir's brother - a real person, fascinating, tragic and by a wonderful and grossly undervalued A..."Thank you
