Almost done with my long march through Nabokov: 17 novels down, 1 to go. This one is Nabokov in miniature, and a bit diminished. It’s got all the perhaps too well-worn by this point Nabokov markers: anti-Freudianism, play with concepts of time and death, a discomfiting obsession with “nymphettes”. If you guess butterflies make an appearance, of course they do. All done in about 100 pages of solidly enough constructed story. Not bad but probably mostly for Nabokov completists. Of which I can just about count myself. ( )

Having read Lolita some years ago I don't think this book represents Nabokov at his best. More thoughts when I finish. ( )

The extremely simple story of Hugh Person and his lover Armande is told with this wonderful, delicious examination of little snippets of life. From the 'ask me what I can do' ambitions of a humdrum life to the description of Swiss hot chocolate to its description of second-rate Swiss hotels- there is a savoring in the ordinary that shines through these pages. I read chapter-1 multiple times to make peace with 'transparent things', but it will still need more re-reads.
After note: some of Nabokov's descriptions of human digestion are the most 'beautiful' yet biologically accurate I've read in literature. ( )

61. Transparent Things by Vladimir Nabokov
published: 1972
format: 104-page paperback
acquired: September
read: Dec 7-11
time reading: 4:56, 2.8 mpp
rating: 4
locations: a small villa in Switzerland and somewhere in US (which either isn’t specified or I missed it. Presumably eastern us)
about the author: 1899 – 1977. Russia born, educated at Trinity College in Cambridge, 1922. Lived in Berlin (1922-1937), Paris, the US (1941-1961) and Montreux, Switzerland (1961-1977).

This was actually a little anticlimactic after Vera, which left quite an impact. But this is a good novella, a writer's novel that still manages to reach the reader and left me with a lot to think about.

We're in Switzerland and reading about clueless Americans in Switzerland. And maybe this is about clueless readers in general. VN tells us on page one: “Novices must learn to skim over matter if they want matter to stay at the exact level of the moment.” So, feeling all novice-like and insulted I stumbled through another 25 pages having no idea what was going on. And every couple of pages a new chapter starts and new mindset. (I had put the book down twice in those first 25 pages, and both times could not recall anything I had read and had to go back and read it again.) But there Hugh Person‘s story, his love of the unlovable Armande, begins to come out clearly. Nabokov create's an alter-ego of himself, an old cranky American author identified as Mr. R, who lives in Switzerland. Person, who works for a publisher, travels meet him a couple times. Actually the book is four trips Person takes to Switzerland, and most of the actual moment of the text happen in Switzerland.

Nabokov was a very serious writer who was never really serious, and this aspect comes out here. It's sad, tragically sad, and yet playful, and also uncomfortably thought-provoking. Not sure who I would recommend this to (although those curious about Switzerland come to mind), but I think if you get through those first 25 pages, it rewards.

2021
https://www.librarything.com/topic/333774#7678428 ( )

lost me a little, there, nabokov.. ( )