Despair (Vintage International)

I didn’t think a book such as this could exist—a book that would have me disappointed in Vladimir Nabokov. Though I think I know what it is. This is the first of Nabokov’s original Russian works I’ve read. I’ve worked my way through most of his English repertoire, and the whole tone is different. It’s very… well, Russian. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Russians. But they do...more

I didn’t think a book such as this could exist—a book that would have me disappointed in Vladimir Nabokov. Though I think I know what it is. This is the first of Nabokov’s original Russian works I’ve read. I’ve worked my way through most of his English repertoire, and the whole tone is different. It’s very… well, Russian. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Russians. But they do have a tendency to over-philosophize, and I’m pretty sure the more neurotic the main character, the better the Russians like it. And the narrator of this thing drove me nuts. I also missed the richness of Nabokov’s English. Russian is a very anxious language—or at least it comes off that way in translation.   hide