Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (1962)
Though Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire could be challenging and indeed trying at times with its intentional incoherence, I found it to be absolutely fascinating. It is a novel strewn with endless Easter eggs of clarity left for the reader to tinker with. And “novel” is a term to be used loosely; the reader is given a forward by a fictional scholar to a 999-line poem by another fictional poet, followed by notes and a corresponding index by said scholar. Not to mention the fact that he is insane. The story is constantly jumping from forward to poem, note to poem, note to note. I’m fairly certain that the unabridged version of Pale Fire would be well over 999 pages…or index cards.
Pale Fire is only the second Nabokov novel that I’ve read, Continue reading
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