The Gift

To RE-READ-- So, we chose this for book club and I found this book fascinating-- tore through at lightening speed until I hit the interminable, tearing-my-hair-out, dreadful 4th chapter. I kept at it thankfully (despite members of our book club dropping like flies), realizing that Nabokov was using a device [MILD SPOILER]--- of making this a chapter of the book that the main character was writing (sort of "If on a winter's night a traveler" of him). Predictably the 5th and final chapter was much more enjoyable. I actually laughed out loud when I realized the 5th chapter was full of criticisms of the author's "work"---still, I feel I would be better served reading this later, after a healthy diet of Pushkin, Gogol, et. al. I couldn't help but feel there were huge literary jokes that I was missing, or that I would sort of "recognize" but then miss the punchline. Nabokov's versatility and fluidity between styles is really very cool in this work-- I saw nothing of the author of Lolita until the 5th (and my favorite) chapter. I actually almost felt the 5th could exist as a short on its own. The rest of the book I found a bit high-brow or inaccessible for the average reader, without either a good amount of homework or a hearty appreciation specifically for Russian Lit.HOWEVER, that is not to say that the language isn't incredibly seductive and rich. It really is full of tasty descriptions and imagery. This part at least, can be enjoyed by anyone who loves a good book.Interesting to note that this is the last that he wrote in his own language, and that he helped quite a bit with the English translation. Still, I wish I could read it in Russian, as I'm sure with a subject like this it can only truly be appreciated fully in the original (what with all the discussions of metre and rhythm of language, etc.)

While I love all my previous VN books, I did not particularly enjoy The Gift. I liked the initial chapter very much, with Yasha the ghost boy and his grieving parents, the prescribed order of businesses in Berlin, Fedor's room, and the piano tied down in the moving van, i found the remainder of the book tedious and not very engaging. Perhaps if I were knowledgeable about Pushkin, etc, as well as Russian political history of the time period in question, the book would have had more meaning for me. Well written, yes, but that was not enough in this case.

This is another of those daunting books that I only completed after my third try. I'm glad I stuck with it - difficult but worthwhile. It begins with a portrait of the artist, Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev, as a young man, trying to become a published author, scraping out a nearly destitute existence in Berlin. Like Nabokov, Fyodor's family had formerly been titled landowners in pre-Bolshevik Russia and are now living in exile in Berlin.This book consists of five long chapters - the first describes Fyodor's literary quest, his surroundings, his lifestyle, and some of his poems, published by a small emigre press, as he reminisces over them. The best part of the book is the second chapter where we are taken back to Fyodor's childhood in Russia. There is an amazing description of his father's butterfly collecting expeditions and mysterious death in Central Asia. This section is absolutely fascinating and is among my favorite writings by Nabokov (or anybody else).In chapters three and four the book becomes increasingly confusing. I think Nabokov is trying to challenge the readers to the point where most will just quit right here. Why? I have no idea. For example, on page 154 of the Vintage International edition he changes narrator and point of view - right in the middle of a paragraph! Then twenty pages later he switches back, again mid-paragraph. Our hero, Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev, has a friend and rival named Chernyshevski. In chapter three Fyodor begins to write a book about another Chernyshevski who was an actual historic figure (?) in Russia; then in chapter four we get to read Fyodor's book about the historic Chernyshevski, which according to some of the other reviews is tremendously funny - I guess I didn't get the joke. Sounds like a pitch for a David Lynch movie.Finally, in the last chapter, we are back to Fyodor in Berlin, and this section I did find hilarious - plus Nabokov more or less resolves all the plot elements and wraps up what ends up being a coherent story.Admittedly my lack of knowledge of Russian history (Chernyshevski who?) and ignorance to most of Nabokov's inside jokes and Russian literary illusions prevented me from fully devouring and appreciating this novel - but in spite of that I was impressed and moved. This is the seventh Nabokov novel that I've read and my third favorite (after Pale Fire and Lolita). Well worth the frustration.

"Among the best prose stylists of our century..." goes the complement to Nabokov's fiction. You know what, he is still among the best prose stylists in this century, the 21st. A must read. Yea that sounds hackyneed by now. Too bad it has been wasted on less writers. Read this book. Don't buy into snobby readers advice, even Nabokov's own advice, so when you find yourself wanting to skip a few parts in the beginning do it... You'll come back to the very first sentence and reread ("all readers should be re-readers..." up until the point that made you say wow.

Written in the style of old Russian classics. Hard to follow and harder to understand.

The book arrived with damage on the front, back, and the spine. I am unable to ask for an exchange as I need the book today, but I am very disappointed it is in this bad condition when it was advertised as new.

yes

One of the best works of the Master.