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Cleaning Nabokov's House

3.31 of 5 stars 3.31 · rating details · 708 ratings · 232 reviews

When Barb Barrett walks out on her loveless marriage, she doesn’t realize she will lose everything: her home, her financial security, even her beloved children. Approaching forty with her life in shambles and no family or friends to turn to, Barb must now discover what it means to rely on herself in a stark new emotional landscape. With only a questionable business plan in...more

Paperback, 352 pages

Published March 13th 2012 by Touchstone (first published 2011)

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May 18, 2012 Jeniffer Almonte rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, first-reads, quit-reading, reviewed

I feel like Leslie Daniels is a much better writer than the book that she actually wrote, if that makes any sense at all. She has a wonderful, literary voice. But it isn't well-served by the melodrama of her debut novel. And I would be really interested to see what she does in the future.

The premise of "Cleaning Nabokov's House" is clever. A woman buys a home that had once been lived in by the famous author and, finding an unfinished manuscript that might have been his, decides to share it with...more I feel like Leslie Daniels is a much better writer than the book that she actually wrote, if that makes any sense at all. She has a wonderful, literary voice. But it isn't well-served by the melodrama of her debut novel. And I would be really interested to see what she does in the future.

The premise of "Cleaning Nabokov's House" is clever. A woman buys a home that had once been lived in by the famous author and, finding an unfinished manuscript that might have been his, decides to share it with the world. I found this idea really exciting and creative and I expected this novel to be about Nabokov, writing, words, and the importance of books. It is a little bit about these things. But as it turns out, the fascinating discovery of Nabokov's treasure is secondary to this woman's experiences losing custody of her children due to a series of events that are described as unlucky. Well, sort of.

100 pages into this book I grew suspicious that I was reading chick lit. The main character was making yet another reference to the way that her children smell. The problem with her sleeping with her children's pajamas under her pillow, or sitting in their rooms to inhale the scent, etc, etc, etc is that the reasons that she lost custody of her children are valid ones, rather than bad luck. Daniels consistently presents this character as "Someone who seeks redemption after bad people did bad things to her", detailing all the many ways she has been wronged and expressing how badly she needs a comeback. But at the beginning of this book this character had left her husband and is sleeping in her car. Why is she sleeping in her car? We are given one line to explain this "No one knows that it's only in my car that I feel like myself." Well.... okay. But sleeping in her car, peeing in the woods and wearing the same clothes day after day, is not the behavior of a stable or responsible adult. And this behavior is why she lost custody of her children. That is what happened. So this book is really about "Someone who seeks redemption after she did crazy things that caused her hardship." The cartoonish evilness of her ex-husband seemed beside the point.

Whenever I lost patience with seeing anything related to the custody battle or her ex-husband etc, etc, Daniels would finally write about Nabokov. Or she would treat us to a lovely bit of dialogue with an eccentric publisher. Or she would make interesting observations about small town upstate New York. All that stuff was so great. But soon enough we were back to some entirely unsubtle scene with her ex-husband. His car is bigger than hers. And his new dog growled at her. And she wanted a Danish but he just wants coffee. And she doesn't just get up and get a Danish because.... "John is someone with whom you never get what you want. Even if what you want is a Danish."

Sigh. Soon after that scene, I decided to stop reading this novel.

Ultimately, this woman just isn't that good at life. She makes awful decisions and is generally inept. I think reading about someone who isn't good at life can be great as long as it's clear that this was the author's intention. Which it absurdly wasn't in this book. We are supposed to root for her and despair at how others have hurt her in various ways. I never felt anything close to that.

Someone so incapable of conducting even the most basic affairs of her own life is the wrong person to make such an interesting discovery as Nabokov's unpublished manuscript! And Daniels has so much more to offer than this "hapless 40 year old with an evil ex-husband". She actually is a good writer.

I want to give my thanks to the publisher for sending me an advance reader's copy! (less)

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Jul 05, 2011 Laura Stone Johnson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-book

I downloaded this audio book without remembering why I had requested it. Just going by the title, without any book jacket to set me straight, I thought I’d be hearing a fairly dense literary tale, reflective of Nabokov. Instead I got a nice wry and sardonic romantic comedy, that yes, does have something to do with Nabokov, but not in any way one might have expected. Most of the story is wildly unrealistic, but are we really looking for realism in what turns out to be a cute romance?

Newly divorc...more

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Feb 01, 2013 Janet Gardner rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Barbara Barrett is recently divorced, underemployed, displaced from her beloved New York City, and worried about her upcoming fortieth birthday. Mostly, though, she’s desperately missing her two children. Her control-freak ex has taken custody, having demonstrated in court that Barbara is unstable (possibly true) and an unfit mother (decidedly untrue). She finds what may or may not be an unfinished novel manuscript by Vladimir Nabokov (for a brief time in the 1950s, he rented the house she lives...more

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Jul 09, 2012 Mmars rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There are so many books out there that are not really good literature and also not bad popular fiction. For some reason this book sparked my interest. A review? Something I read here on Goodreads or in a magazine review? The title, quite possibly. Sadly, another contemporary fiction book that let me down.

I actually enjoyed the main character and narrator, Barb, in a way. She puts herself down a lot, as one who has just left a marriage might,and she's offbeat but she somehow muddles her way thro...more

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Jun 01, 2012 Nicolas Shump rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have to admit that I was drawn to this book because of the title. The book jacket tells me that the author, Leslie Daniels is an accomplished writer and editor with an MFA degree. So I knew that I could expect polished writing and a good narrative structure, unless she tended more towards the metafictional side of things. Thankfully she doesn’t.
Instead, Daniels crafts a compelling and ultimately optimistic novel about literature, fame, motherhood, and the costs of divorce. Barb Barnett is t...more I have to admit that I was drawn to this book because of the title. The book jacket tells me that the author, Leslie Daniels is an accomplished writer and editor with an MFA degree. So I knew that I could expect polished writing and a good narrative structure, unless she tended more towards the metafictional side of things. Thankfully she doesn’t.
Instead, Daniels crafts a compelling and ultimately optimistic novel about literature, fame, motherhood, and the costs of divorce. Barb Barnett is the protagonist who leaves her husband, only to find that trying to get a fair shake in divorce proceedings in her ex’s hometown is nearly impossible. So, she not only loses her marriage, but she loses her children too. She rebounds and finds work that affords her a fair amount of freedom during the day. She learns that the house she is staying in had once been occupied by the famous Russian emigre novelist, Vladimir Nabokov. When she finally begins to decorate her house, mostly for her children’s sake, she finds a set of notecards that may or may not be the foundation for a manuscript from Nabokov.
The potential novel is about love and baseball, one of which is not unfamiliar territory for Nabokov. With her newfound fame, Barnett finds herself deciding whether or not to sell the manuscript or try to publish it. She also is invited to a Nabokov convention where she finds herself surrounded by skeptical and condescending professional scholars. She holds her own and Daniels allows her to deliver one of the best short descriptions of what Nabokov’s writing, and I would argue by extension, what great literature does to you.

“’I know about his sentences. His sentences are impossible to imitate, but I know what they do.’” I told them what I had discovered about Nabokov’s sentences: Because the word string and the thoughts behind the words are so original, the reader’s brain can’t jump ahead. There is no opportunity to make assumptions, no mental leapfrogging to the end of the sentence. So the reader is suspended in the perfect moment of now. You can only experience now. The sentences celebrate the absolute instant of creation. ‘It takes your breath away, ‘ I said.”

Barb Barnett continues to rebuild her life and I do love the plot twist that Daniels employs as Barnett fights for her children. Some of the strongest passages and chapters are those that deal with the pain of divorce and the hurt created by not being able to spend time with your children. For anyone who has been through a separation or divorce, Daniels’ prose rings true. This is a well-written, clever, and doggedly optimistic book that earns its optimism through mostly plausible circumstances and situations.
(less)

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May 16, 2012 Barbara rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Cleaning Nabokov’s House by Leslie Daniels

Barb is 39 years old. She is recently divorced and lost custody of her two children to her ex-husband. She has been living between her car and a room at the Swiss Chalet Motor Inn when she finds a blue enamel pot floating in the lake. This blue enamel pot is what leads her to “the” house which she purchases with funds her late father left her. The house happens to be the former residence of a famous author, Nabokov. One day while on a cleaning spree, Bar...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Michelle rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, contemporary-fiction, bookclub, chick-lit, women-s-fiction

2.5 stars. Fun book about a (very) late 30s woman who has to rebuild her life after her divorce and, more importantly, losing custody of her two children. It hovers over some middle ground between chick lit and women’s fiction. Barb, the narrator, is easy to root for because though she’s down you know she’s not out. This book does require quite a bit suspension of disbelief. The narrator opens a whorehouse (revealed in the first paragraph) but the clients are women. Um, I don't think so. The rea...more 2.5 stars. Fun book about a (very) late 30s woman who has to rebuild her life after her divorce and, more importantly, losing custody of her two children. It hovers over some middle ground between chick lit and women’s fiction. Barb, the narrator, is easy to root for because though she’s down you know she’s not out. This book does require quite a bit suspension of disbelief. The narrator opens a whorehouse (revealed in the first paragraph) but the clients are women. Um, I don't think so. The reason there aren’t wildly successful bordellos catering to women is because, as everyone knows, women can get sex for free any time they want it! Young, middle aged, old…all we have to do is ask. There have been many failed women-as-clients cathouses in “real life” and there is a reason for this. The bunny ranch people tried it and failed miserably despite the success of their original venture. Why do some men pay for sex? Because there are many more men wanting action than there are women willing to give it up for free with no strings attached! This is simple supply-demand. Not to mention women, particularly the stay at home mom types in this book, are going to have a hard time explaining why thousands of dollars are suddenly going missing from their bank accounts. On top of this, the town is painted as sexually repressed which is why the service is so needed. Well I hardly think sexually repressed women are going to see an ad in the paper and instantly start storming the gates.

I also think some of the situations in this book were treaded on too lightly. For example, I wish the author explored the shame Barb must’ve felt as a mother losing custody of her children. Let’s be honest, if you hear of the wife not having primary custody your first thought is most likely “whoa, she must be on crack or abusive or something truly horrific” because the mother supposedly never loses custody. But it happens. I kept thinking, why aren’t people more suspicious of her? Where is her sense of shame? (Side note: “Best Kept Secret” by Amy Hatvany does an excellent job on this topic). The author doesn’t at all address the societal bias in this regard. It’s a-okay for the husband to see the kids one weekend a month but if it’s the mother she must be a monster to scare all monsters. This is not even really acknowledged.

I adored the married couple of Bill the mailman and Margie the literary agent. They both come to life on the page. Barb’s kids are somewhat shadowy at times and I have to say Darcy does not act like a 5 year old. My 6 year old is ridiculously precocious, to an oftentimes frustrating degree, and she doesn’t even come close to matching Darcy’s own precociousness. I wasn’t fully buying it. Anyway, all that aside, this was a fun, quick read. I enjoyed the writing style: succinct, witty, and not overly flowery. It’s the author’s clever writing style that elevates this above ordinary “chick lit.”(less)

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Mar 27, 2012 Michele rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I started out not liking this book. I was annoyed by the writing, I didn't like the main character, was annoyed at not being clued in to little things like the narrator's name or that of her ex-husband. I think I picked the book up three separate times, drawn in only by the Nabokov connection and wondering what it was. Ultimately, I felt that the book was pure fluff, chick-lit to the very last page. And yet. I found myself enjoying the novel, wanting Barbara to regain custody of her children, wa...more

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Mar 12, 2012 Ashley Thomas rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was, for me, a disappointment. I read it basically blind (I just picked it up without reading much about it) but experienced a rush of enjoyment followed by annoyance. The premise is interesting - a divorced woman whose life has essentially tanked is living in a home once occupied by the author Nabokov. During fits of cleaning brought on by depression, she finds papers which may or may not actually have been penned by Nabokov. She contemplates her situation, life in general, and deals...more

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Jul 05, 2011 Mrfishscales rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american-21st-century-fiction

This is a funny book, as it laugh out loud funny. It does not really give anything away to summarize the plot as woman loses her marriage and her kids, finds a manuscript in a house that she rents, opens a house of prostitution for women in order to make the money necessary to get her kids back.

All of this takes place in a very thinly disguised Ithaca, New York, which Daniels gives the maliciously unmellifluous pseudonym of Onkweda. Her protagonist is a snotty WASP from a quasi-privileged backgr...more

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Jun 20, 2011 Carla Ford rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Barb Barrett is a hero to women who think they are trapped in a marriage or a life that doesn't fulfill them. Okay, possible she could think things through a little better than she has lately, but then again, her instinct seems to be her best guide. Stuck in a marriage to a man who seems to want to control her every move, along with squashing her personality and individuality, Barb decides that she has had enough and leaves, taking her two children, Sam and Darcy, with her. Unfortunately, she ha...more

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May 27, 2011 Luanne Ollivier rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Barb Barrett lost everything after she walked out of her marriage - job, self-esteem, home, but worst of all, the one thing she didn't expect to lose - custody of her children. In an attempt to be close to them, she has relocated to the small New York town of Onkwedo. She moves into a home once lived in by the author Vladimir Nabokov. It is while cleaning out the house, she discovers a series of index cards behind a drawer. It seems to be a story about Babe Ruth - and is it possible it was writt...more Barb Barrett lost everything after she walked out of her marriage - job, self-esteem, home, but worst of all, the one thing she didn't expect to lose - custody of her children. In an attempt to be close to them, she has relocated to the small New York town of Onkwedo. She moves into a home once lived in by the author Vladimir Nabokov. It is while cleaning out the house, she discovers a series of index cards behind a drawer. It seems to be a story about Babe Ruth - and is it possible it was written by Nabokov?

Leslie Daniels paints an excellent portrait of a mother dealing with loss. The impetus used to ignite her (the maybe Nabokov story) is unusual and quirky. The path taken by Barb to reclaim her life is perhaps best described by Barb herself...

"I knew I could stay in this town when I found the blue enamel post floating in the lake. The post led me to the house, the house led me to the book, the book to the lawyer, the lawyer to the whorehouse, the whorehouse to science and from science I joined the world."

I enjoyed Barb's quite funny view of life and her very sardonic sense of humour. I applauded her attempts to reclaim her life and children. But....she lost me at the whorehouse. If this was a chick lit book, I could have bought it - maybe. But if this is a woman seriously looking to reclaim her children, does she honestly think opening a male staffed whorehouse for the lonely women of Onkwedo is a good move?

Cleaning Nabokov's House is written in first person narrator style - one I find a bit tedious after a while. It leads to a one sided story and I would have liked to hear from other characters. I found the ex-husband to be more of a caricature than a person. Her children were cute, the daughter a little too much.

I enjoy books about women 'finding' themselves and regaining control of their lives. I enjoyed Daniels' freshman effort - I think she has a bright future as an author. But, for me this was just an okay read. The detour into the cathouse bumped this down to a three (less)

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Apr 03, 2011 RNOCEAN rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

*CLEANING NABOKOV'S HOUSE* by Leslie Daniels
“I knew I could stay in this town when I found the blue enamel pot floating in the lake. The pot led me to the house, the house led me to the book, the book to the lawyer, the lawyer to the whorehouse, the whorehouse to science, and from science I joined the world.” So begins Leslie Daniels’s funny and moving novel about a woman’s desperate attempt to rebuild her life. When Barb Barrett walks out on her loveless marriage she doesn’t realize she will...more

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Jul 08, 2012 Rachel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, chick-lit, fiction

Cleaning Nabokov's House went a completely different direction than I was expecting. I thought it would be mostly about Barb finding the manuscript and trying to get it published but that was only a small part of the story. It's about her trying to become a functional human being again after getting divorced and losing her kids. She starts an unorthodox business in the sleepy little town she lives in which was a surprise to me although now I know it's foreshadowed in the very first sentence of t...more

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Jun 06, 2011 Melanie Cohen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There were things I liked about this book, which is about a woman who lost her kids in a divorce and eventually buys up a house once lived in by Vladimir Nabokov. I loved reading the snippets of Nabokov woven throughout the book. Nabokov was the reason I picked it up in the first place. I even thought the writing itself was mostly good, syntactically. However, the problems I had with the book outweighed what I liked about it.
The main character, Barb, was SO annoying within the first hundred page...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Yuka rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Barb Barrett has lost her momentum. Which is unfortunate because she is trying to cope with a lot: her father has died, her marriage has ended, she’s living in a town that she hates and she’s lost custody of her children. Barb discovers a manuscript that may have been written by Nabokov. This discovery leads to new friendships, a new career and a way to spend more time with her children. Barb may even find out how she can lead a happier, more vibrant life.

Barb is a likeable character. I was symp...more

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Nov 17, 2011 Patricia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Notable authors, such as Karen Joy Fowler, Alison Lurie, Dorothy Allison and several others, have high praise for Leslie Daniels' novel. They describe the book as "witty, original, appealing, charming, quirky, captivating and moving." Can all of those writers be wrong? No. Cleaning Nabokov's House is everything that it's cracked up to be. This is one of those rare books that's so delicious that you want to devour it in one sitting, yet you have to slow down because you don't want it to end.

Ba...more Notable authors, such as Karen Joy Fowler, Alison Lurie, Dorothy Allison and several others, have high praise for Leslie Daniels' novel. They describe the book as "witty, original, appealing, charming, quirky, captivating and moving." Can all of those writers be wrong? No. Cleaning Nabokov's House is everything that it's cracked up to be. This is one of those rare books that's so delicious that you want to devour it in one sitting, yet you have to slow down because you don't want it to end.

Barb Barrett, the novel's heroine, is a 39-year-old married housewife with two young children. She and her family live in the small town of Onkwedo in upstate New York. Suddenly Barb finds herself with no place to live and no job after she walks out on her husband. Although a relatively minor incident causes Barb to leave, her marriage had been shaky for a long time. Worst of all, from Barb's standpoint, is that she is separated from her children, Sam and Darcy. She only gets to see her children one weekend each month.

As she begins to come to grips with her new circumstances, Barb gets a job anwering mail for a local dairy. She manages to scrape up enough money for a downpayment on a modest home. One day while putting away her daughter's belongings, Barb makes a surprising discovery. She finds a stack of note cards hidden behind a drawer. There are sentences and words written on the cards that appear to be notes for a possible novel or story about Babe Ruth. According to local legend, the famous Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov had lived in the house for a few years while he was teaching at a local college. Barb wonders if the notes were written by Nabokov, who left them behind and forgot about them. If so, how will she be able to prove authorship? After meeting with a lawyer and experts in New York City to discuss Nabokov's purported manuscript, Barb makes another discovery that inspires her. Life in the town of Onkwedo offers little in the way of entertainment. Barb finds herself wondering what the women in the town do all day. She begins thinking about providing a much-needed service for the women in the town. As she starts to put her plan into action, things quickly fall into place. Pretending to be interested in doing a pyschological research project, Barb recruits young men from the local college as subjects. She finds a suitable location for her enterprise, and pretty soon, she has a flourishing business.

I would like to give this book a 5-star rating, but I am very stingy with my stars. After all, it isn't Nabokov. Nevertheless, this book might be the best one I've read this year. It was certainly the most entertaining one. Leslie Daniels has a way with details, describing her characters' most basic activities in a way that makes them seem real, especially her heroine. Barb's self-deprecating humor and honesty won me over immediately. (less)

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Jun 18, 2011 Lauren rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“I knew I could stay in this town when I found the blue enamel pot floating in the lake. The pot led me to the house, the house led me to the book, the book to the lawyer, the lawyer to the whorehouse, the whorehouse to science, and from science I joined the world.”
So begins Leslie Daniels’s funny and moving novel about a woman’s desperate attempt to rebuild her life. When Barb Barrett walks out on her loveless marriage she doesn’t realize she will lose everything: her home, her financial secur...more

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Oct 18, 2012 Norton Stone rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A book written by a former Fiction Editor with rave reviews from Authors might get your suspicious spider senses tingling but broadly speaking this is a competent and entertaining book. Is it literary fiction, or perhaps a fusion of romance and comedy with the requisite literary voice? I struggled with the voice battle between Barb and the Author, and I thought the Author won. The voice failed the credibility test. Barb was invented to tell this story, which may sound bloody obvious, but she lac...more

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May 12, 2011 Elizabeth Whitehead rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Cleaning Nabokov’s House
Leslie Daniels
May 10, 2011
Leslie Daniels does a great job of describing the anger, depression, despair, and bitterness that goes along with most divorces. She has also including many humorous sections throughout the book that will make you laugh. And although the part about Nabokov is so far fetched that it gives the reader an interest in Nabokov and you might want to read his books as well. The emotional state of Barb is so up and down I sometimes found it hard to relate...more

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Apr 14, 2013 CriCra CriCra rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: cartaceo

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. ~~ 3 STELLINE E MEZZO ~~
La mia recensione sul Blog, Sognando Leggendo:
http://sognandoleggendo.net/nella-vit...

Nella vita tutto può cambiare di Leslie Daniels è un romanzo d’esordio che seppur tratti tematiche serie e importanti come quella della custodia legale dei figli, potrà apparire un libro alquanto particolare per la modalità di linguaggio, stesura e le vicende dei personaggi che seppur non vengano caratterizzati in modo eclatante, appariranno in qualche modo stravaganti e allo stesso tem...more

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Nov 28, 2011 Julie Luekenga rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I like a good story, especially one eloquently told and "Cleaning Nabokov's House" fit the bill. Without giving too much away, the protagonist, Barb Barrett, is trying to make her way after her divorce in a world that is not hers while her pushy "experson" has taken full custody of the kids. The story revolves around her efforts to get her feet under her, find her identity and fight for her children. The title of the book comes from a manuscript of unknown authorship she finds in the house she h...more

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Jul 12, 2011 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Sarah by: Jenny

Shelves: read-in-2011

I love reading books about people who have messed up so deeply and painted themselves into such awful corners that it's nearly impossible to see how they'll ever triumph again. And then I love watching them triumph. CLEANING NABAKOV'S HOUSE has all that and more going for it; it's literary and witty and poignant, but also hysterically funny. A friend gave me the book because it takes place in upstate New York (where I went to college), and because it deals with books and the publishing industry....more

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Jun 30, 2012 Parismaddy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Cleaning Nabokov's House by Leslie Daniels

39 year old Barb, newly divorced discovers the house she's just moved into (in Oswego, NY) was once occupied by Vladimir and Vera Nabokov when the author was teaching in a nearby town. Barb uses sprucing up and cleaning the place (her heart?) as a balm to soothe away the sting left by the divorce and losing full-time custody of her two children to her ex. While cleaning the house, she finds a stash of index cards that may have been written by the famous...more

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Apr 26, 2011 Denise rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Cleaning Nabokov's House is Barb Barrett's story of falling apart during her restrictive marriage and nasty divorce and pulling herself together again so she can get her children back. I found the book to be both full of tired clichés and bizarrely unrealistic and fantastical. Barb's "ex- person", as she calls him, is a caricature of a bad ex, her kids are cute and quirky in a very one-dimensional way, and she is just plain crazy. I found all the stuff about Nabokov's supposed unpublished manusc...more

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Jul 31, 2011 Shawna rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book is another vacation book---light reading, entertaining, don't have to think too hard to follow along.

That said, it's also a bit far fetched. Our main character, Barb, loses her kids to a divorce and tries to regain custody from a control freak ex-husband.

Barb does what any mom would do--she opens a whore house in the woods in the small town where she lives---a place where everybody knows your name, what you're doing, and who you're doin' it with, and why, and what you wore at the time....more

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Jul 04, 2011 Kaitlin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After the first 50-100 pages I almost decided not to finish this book. I am glad that I stuck it through. Barb Barrett seems so selfish and stuck in the past thinking about her father and cousin who passed away. As much as she wants her children back she is ignoring how leaving affected them. She is just letting people and fate push her along. Also the character can be nasty in her judging other people.

I am glad I stuck with it though. I did enjoy watching Barb start to turn her life around and...more

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May 10, 2011 Jan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Barb Barrett is approaching age 40 when her life gets turned upside down. Her husband is divorcing her and he is taking their two children. She moves into a home once owned by Vladimir Nabokov and finds a manuscript that she believes is a lost work of his. She tries to get it published or at least find out who wrote it as the "experts" don't think it's Nabokov's work. She is also trying to get the kids back. She has to find a way to make a living. How she goes about this is very clever. It invol...more

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Mar 08, 2011 Brandi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads

(I read and reviewed this book because I received it for free through Goodreads' First Reads program.)

A quick, entertaining read, Cleaning Nabokov's House is alternately funny, poignant, and smart, and sometimes all three at once. I occasionally had trouble following the plot, but there were so many tiny moments of brilliant insight that it hardly mattered. Her description of Nabokov is a perfect example: "Reading Nabokov was like eating pâté straight, no crackers, with a chocolate truffle chas...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Beth rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I read the inside jacket of the book that this mom discovers a manuscript that might be Vladimir Nabokov's lost work, I was intrigued. She walks out on her husband who controlled every move she made but ends up losing custody of their children in the process. She has nothing left but her old car and a few possessions. She has to start all over. Just like the main character's car, the plot dragged and sputtered until it died before the end. Who really opens a cathouse in town when one wants...more

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Quotes from Cleaning Nabokov's House

“I knew I would stay in this town when I found the blue enamel pot floating in the lake. The pot led me to the house, the house led me to the book, the book to the lawyer, the lawyer to the whorehouse, the whorehouse to science, and from science I joined the world.” — 3 people liked it

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Cleaning Nabokov's House

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