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Bend Sinister (Penguin Modern Classics)

3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 · rating details · 1,776 ratings · 106 reviews

The state has been recently taken over and is being run by the tyrannical and philistine ‘Average Man’ party. Under the slogans of equality and happiness for all, it has done away with individualism and freedom of thought. Only John Krug, a brilliant philosopher, stands up to the regime. His antagonist, the leader of the new party, is his old school enemy, Paduk – known as...more

Paperback, Penguin Modern Classics, 208 pages

Published April 26th 2001 by Penguin Books Ltd (first published 1947)

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May 31, 2011 Paquita Maria Sanchez rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

Beautiful, then grueling. The first half is stellar, the second half simultaneously disturbingly fascinating and immensely frustrating. Jogging the last lap of the book feels like running with a ferocious wind beating against you, largely due to the otherwise elegant prose getting a but clunky. Despite what is unarguably a beautiful stretch of text, I found myself wanting to slug it down like ice cold water at 4 am after a bender. I felt immense guilt in doing so, as I know from various quotes a...more Beautiful, then grueling. The first half is stellar, the second half simultaneously disturbingly fascinating and immensely frustrating. Jogging the last lap of the book feels like running with a ferocious wind beating against you, largely due to the otherwise elegant prose getting a but clunky. Despite what is unarguably a beautiful stretch of text, I found myself wanting to slug it down like ice cold water at 4 am after a bender. I felt immense guilt in doing so, as I know from various quotes and the preface to this novel that Nabokov was quite the priss about paying attention to every last detail of anything worth reading, of slowly and meditatively taking the words in as if every last one of them was a rare, pricey truffle. Unfortunately, he made the entrance to his world so coated in thorny vines that only the most patient of individuals could truly give it the attention it demands in order to sufficiently work through it. To clarify a potential offense, I initially said that the prose gets "clunky," but by that I did not mean "poorly written." Rather, I mean so self-aware, so thickly descriptive that it seems less concerned with conveying a story than with just looking purdy. It's sort of like a show poodle: you don't own that sort of dog and groom it that way because it's going to take care of your mouse problem. Terrible analogy, and I apologize to you and your memory, Mr. Nabokov, but you haven't left me with a lot of outs here.

In short, it feels like I experienced-didn't-experience this novel. However, the first chapter in particular is one of the more gorgeous parallels I have seen drawn between the circle of human life and the cycle of nature to cityscape to urban decay; of the birth of romance, the flowering of a family, of death, and of the pain of inevitable loss such devotion begs of the devotee, and of the tiny shoots of life that rise from and are fertilized by the ashes. There are dozens of other instances of such fantastic stretches of text sprinkled throughout, making it an absolutely worthwhile, albeit ultimately somewhat disappointing novel. Reading it felt like, I don't know, attempting to court a cold and distant lover? Trying to teach algebra to a 6 year old? I am having trouble getting my point across here, so my apologies if this review just reads like a ramble. I'm in review-block-mode, but I'm trying to shake it off. Anyway, it's a great book, but it ain't no beach read. That's all I'm saying.

Upside: this made me really want to re-watch Brazil, so I think I'm going to try and do that today. I'm absolutely certain that you all wanted to know that.(less)

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May 17, 2011 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Yeah, I don't have any idea what to say here. So much beautiful writing that time and again I wanted to freeze the moment and savor against the lengthening shadows the sublime and playful wit that infuses this silky, slinky prose, the arch elegance drawn taut and set to run with the wind. The man had a gift, an effortless, supple skill with the pen that is a pleasure to behold; too pleasurable perhaps—for as another reviewer astutely points out, it is written so beautifully as to be distracting....more

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Sep 20, 2010 Manny rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's interesting to compare Bend Sinister with 1984. (Nabokov didn't much like Orwell, and thought he was a hack). Orwell's take on totalitarianism, is, roughly, that it's evil. Nabokov's is more that it's terminally stupid. Even when the rulers of the State would actually prefer to get things right, they've fucked up their minds with nonsensical ideology to the point where they're no longer capable of coherent thought. I wonder whether Nabokov wasn't closer to the truth. In the end, the Soviet...more

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Apr 18, 2011 AC rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels-english-american-writers

I have not finished yet -- and I don't know if I will then actually write a review when I do. After all, what can I say or add or... why should I comment... on works of art? Pieces of crap deserve comment. It's obligatory. Works on objective material -- books on history or sociology or entomology or prosody -- can be commented upon or corrected or endorsed...; but ...?-- well, that's just me, maybe.

Anyway -- this is a truly magnificent book. Don't be mislead by some of the less than enthusiastic...more

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Jul 25, 2010 Jenelle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jenelle by: crazy uncle Richard, on my sister's wedding

what'll happen to love, interior life, and the butterflies in a dystopian world??
I'm always charmed by Nabokov's willingness to bore & lose his reader, and this one, his first American novel, is particularly full of tricks. partly they're there to suggest the confusion & bewilderment felt under an absurd totalitarian rule, but partly Nab's just playing. it's like writing in English is still so novel & thrilling for him! even thicker than normal with poetry, puns & reference, it's...more

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Aug 27, 2007 Bob rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The exact edition I got is listed as items 4 and 5 on this page [http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Searc...] - it is a 1964 production by Time-Life Books who I guess had pretensions at the time to be arbiters of high culture before settling down to produce Homer Simpson's Carpenter's Encyclopedia.
The cover is of interest - an illustration faintly reminiscent of de Kooning by Louis Di Valentin who (according to the lack of info on the Web) is a rather forgotten American artist (b. 1908) and general...more

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Nov 20, 2011 Preston Fleming rated it 5 of 5 stars

BEND SINISTER stands at the outer limits of dystopian political fantasy.
Though Nabokov has denied that he intended the novel as social commentary, it is a richly nuanced portrayal of a cultured intellectual caught up in the madness of a tyrannical police state.
The story takes place in a fictional central European country, Padukgrad, endowed with both German and Slavic qualities. Its new dictator and ruling Party of the Common Man embrace an ideology that celebrates the mediocrity of an ignoran...more BEND SINISTER stands at the outer limits of dystopian political fantasy.
Though Nabokov has denied that he intended the novel as social commentary, it is a richly nuanced portrayal of a cultured intellectual caught up in the madness of a tyrannical police state.
The story takes place in a fictional central European country, Padukgrad, endowed with both German and Slavic qualities. Its new dictator and ruling Party of the Common Man embrace an ideology that celebrates the mediocrity of an ignorant sort of “mass man” focused entirely upon serving his baser instincts.
Upon gaining power, the dictator Paduk moves to establish an arbitrary and brutal police state that is, at the same time, farcical in its bureaucratic ineptitude.
On the eve of Paduk’s rise to power, Adam Krug, a professor of philosophy with an international reputation for intellect, becomes distracted by the death of his young wife and repeatedly turns aside an urgent plea from his academic colleagues to intervene with the Party Leader on behalf of the university that employs them.
Having missed the cue to jump into bed with the Paduk regime as his colleagues have, Krug becomes by default one of the few remaining public figures around whom resistance to the new regime might coalesce. For that reason, Paduk demands Krug’s allegiance and offers him the post of university president.
The rub is that this erudite professor of philosophy was once a schoolyard bully and his prime victim was none other than Paduk. Even worse, Krug continues to hold Paduk, his Party, his ideology, and his government in contempt.
When Paduk summons Krug and asks, “What is it exactly you have against my government?” Krug replies dismissively: “I am not in the least interested in your government. What I resent is your attempt to make me interested in it. Leave me alone.”
This might have been the time for a reasonable man with a modicum of political sense to make his choice as among accommodation, resistance or emigration. But Krug is neither reasonable nor politically sensible and, as a result, the regime clamps him in its vise. The security organs arrest Krug’s friends and relatives. Then they come for Krug’s young son, whom they correctly estimate to be the key to breaking Krug’s resistance. Nabokov’s descriptions of the arrest are at once poignant and acidly satirical.
Once in captivity, the man of genius struggles to maintain his detachment from the heedless cruelty of the security men (and women). But soon his moral superiority erodes as he slides toward nihilism and a madness that brings him a kind of release.
With his lyrical and exquisitely mannered prose, BEND SINISTER asserts the primacy of individual consciousness over the banality of mass culture and offers a moving portrait of familial love and loss. In so doing Nabokov also lays bare the inner workings of a brilliant and sensitive mind as it falls to pieces.
Although BEND SINISTER is far from an easy read, the reader’s attention is richly rewarded with an abundance of lucid images, witty observations and dazzling word play. The novel operates on multiple levels, with poetry, comedy, and dream sequences alternating with brutal realism. Often with Nabokov, it can be difficult to distinguish the imagined from the real and in this work the transitions go largely unmarked.
For readers familiar with the workmanlike style of most political dystopian novels, BEND SINISTER will be an exotic treat. For the reader less familiar with the genre who may harbor a lingering nostalgia for a socialist utopia, BEND SINISTER may come as a startling rebuke.

(less)

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Nov 22, 2009 Libbie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Shockingly enough, Bend Sinister manages to rival Lolita for the position of my favorite Nabokov novel, and therefore my favorite novel by any author.

As in Lolita, the theme is the helpless and hopeless situation of the characters, and like Lolita, Bend Sinister is mostly darkness leavened with a helping of genuine humor. Throughout all, Nabokov's incredible narrative voice and creative wordplay shine through, as usual.

Bend Sinister is not one of his better-known works. Most people first think o...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Meriam Kharbat rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: russian, favorites

One would think that after the horror of the war had ended, people would have an optimistic vision of the future, that artists would see la vie en rose. However, when you read the books published in the same year the song came out 1947, they all seem to share this horrible idea of what is to come. Bend Sinister isn't any different.

As Nabokov puts it: “People are made to live together, to do business with one another, to talk, to sing songs together, to meet in clubs and stores, and street corner...more

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Jan 14, 2011 K.A. Laity rated it 5 of 5 stars

I was actually reading Pale Fire when I decided to switch to Bend Sinister, mostly because I decided I would probably have to buy my own copy of Pale Fire because I was making too many notes and it would be easier to just put them in the book and that wouldn't be good to do with the library's copy.

I learn all my new words from Nabokov.

I had already written down tons of new words from Pale Fire, but I found myself writing quotes from Bend Sinister instead. I alluded in my Hamlet review to Ember's...more I was actually reading Pale Fire when I decided to switch to Bend Sinister, mostly because I decided I would probably have to buy my own copy of Pale Fire because I was making too many notes and it would be easier to just put them in the book and that wouldn't be good to do with the library's copy.

I learn all my new words from Nabokov.

I had already written down tons of new words from Pale Fire, but I found myself writing quotes from Bend Sinister instead. I alluded in my Hamlet review to Ember's theory about the play: fascinating and fun. The playfulness is what makes Nabokov's work attractive. Krug's observation of Ember's engravings sets the scene visually but also working toward the revelations. The legend on one: "Ink, a Drug." Followed by pencil marks which "numbered the letters so as to spell Grudinka which means 'bacon' in several Slavic languages." Ham-let, as he points out.

Mmmm, bacon.

Bend Sinister focuses on the dislocation of grief; initially it's Krug's grief for his wife, observed by the self-conscious "I" of the author who soon disappears, though reappearing in time for the end. Nabokov uses structure and authorial voice to explore the limits of empathy: "The square root of I is I" (7). All writers know the observer within us: "In every mask I tried on, there were slits for his eyes."

I have a nub of an idea comparing Ekwilism (the philosophical movement of the new fascist regime in the book) and Vonnegut's world in "Harrison Bergeron" -- but that's too ambitious for here. You can read a summary anywhere. I'm going to give you some bon mots:

"Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form" (46).

"Devices which in some curious new way imitate nature are attractive to simple minds" (69) -- a key to phenomenal wealth if you know how to employ it, I suspect.

"We live in a stocking which is in the process of being turned inside out, without our ever knowing for sure to what phase of the process our moment of consciousness corresponds" (193).

"To each, or about each, of his colleagues he had said at one time or other, something... something impossible to recall in this or that case and difficult to define in general terms -- some careless bright and harsh trifle that had grazed a stretch of raw flesh" (48).

"I esteem my colleagues as I do my own self, I esteem them for two things: because they are able to find perfect felicity in specialized knowledge and because they are not apt to commit physical murder" (58).

Yeah.(less)

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Sep 29, 2011 Jennifer (JC-S) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jennifer (JC-S) by: fionnabhair@bigpond.com

Shelves: librarybooks

‘Less books and more common sense – that’s my motto’

In a fictitious European state now known as Padukgrad, lives the world-renowned philosopher Adam Krug. A new philosophy, known as ‘Ekwilism’ has led the takeover of the state which is now being run by Paduk and his ‘Party of the Average Man’. Ekwilism discourages the idea of anyone being different from anyone else, and promotes the state as the prominent good in society. Naturally, equality and happiness for all does not require (or tolerate) i...more ‘Less books and more common sense – that’s my motto’

In a fictitious European state now known as Padukgrad, lives the world-renowned philosopher Adam Krug. A new philosophy, known as ‘Ekwilism’ has led the takeover of the state which is now being run by Paduk and his ‘Party of the Average Man’. Ekwilism discourages the idea of anyone being different from anyone else, and promotes the state as the prominent good in society. Naturally, equality and happiness for all does not require (or tolerate) individualism or freedom of thought. Adam Krug is grieving over the recent death of his wife and, at first, believes that there is no threat in Paduk’s activities. After all, Krug knew Paduk at school where he once bullied Paduk and referred to him disparagingly as ‘the Toad’.

‘Nothing can happen to Krug the Rock.’

But those who oppose Paduk’s Ekwilist philosophy are being arrested, and this includes many of Krug’s friends. Paduk attempts to persuade Krug to promote the state philosophy, but Krug refuses. When Krug’s young son David is kidnapped, he capitulates and is prepared to promote Ekwilism in order to have David returned. Alas, there has been a mix-up, and the child returned to Adam Krug is not his son David. David has been accidentally tortured and killed. Krug is also killed, after being driven to madness by the realization that freedom of thought is no longer his once the person he cares for most in the world is killed.

‘Individual lives are insecure; but we guarantee the immortality of the State.’

And the title, ‘Bend Sinister’? Nabokov wrote that: ‘This choice of title was an attempt to suggest an outline broken by refraction, a distortion in the mirror of being, a wrong turn taken by life, a sinistral and sinister world.’

It’s not the story so much that held my attention in this novel as the way Nabokov structured it. The use of chess metaphors: a form of constrained movement and confrontation which sees the story finish in checkmate; the crossing of bridges; and reflections on the qualities of puddles each have a role in the narrative. In this novel, Nabokov has constructed and controls a dystopian society which he also extinguishes once he’s finished with it.

‘Twang. A good night for mothing.’

Jennifer Cameron-Smith
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Mar 28, 2011 Gabriel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Dear Vladimir,

"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta." (Lolita, p. 9)

With these words you drew me into a story of passion, obsession, and perversity. You had me at the first sentence. I was yours for the entirety of the book (even the bits towards the end that kind of dragged). You played with language, used it in such new and beautiful ways. It was a j...more

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Jul 01, 2012 wally rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nabokov

this here is...the second? third? from nabokov i will read...the previous some time ago. this one sounds like a hoot...there is an editor's preface that is short and sweet...and glowing...and there is an introduction by the author that is...well...either one, full of himself...or...like charlie brown's teacher....

mwaw! mwaw mwaw! mwa maaa mwaw!

nobokov...telling the reader about all of the rich detail he installed for our reading pleasure...all of it interesting, to be fair. adds to the temptatio...more

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Sep 19, 2010 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars

This read much like a pretentious version of a dystopia, like Orwell if he were trying to please a collegiate, indie rock crowd. But, then again, Nabokov is never afraid to shy away from writing something that would prove exactly how brilliant he was. And he was smart; his capacity for learning and using language is impressive to say the least. He's a brilliant writer, too. There's just this semi-bearable attitude of condescension that works sometimes and really frustrates at others. There are s...more

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Apr 05, 2013 Sridhar rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, read2013

I should perhaps not have started reading Nabokov with this book. It is a dense and obscure piece of writing, so dense and so obscure that the author has felt compelled to explain what he meant to do with this book in a foreword.

Says Nabokov, this is what I slipped in here, and here, and here, and here (in case lesser intelligences like us, not to mention the literary reviews, don't get it). Not just that, to make sure you don't miss me, I inject myself, too, into the novel, coming in at crucial...more

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Jan 05, 2012 Eleanor added it

Shortly after finishing this book, I went for a walk and passed an exhibit of fried eggs: yes, eggs fried there in the window display, on a little skillet, and then hung by clothespins. A concurrent exhibit in China displays photographs of these eggs.

Somehow this was entirely appropriate for the post-novel experience.

"Bend Sinister" is not my favorite Nabokov, but it contains some of my favorite passages. It begins, for instance, with one of the most heart-wrenching segments on grief I have yet...more

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Oct 13, 2012 Dave Morris rated it 5 of 5 stars

You know when you're in the presence of genius, and Nabokov never disappoints. It's hard to say much about this without giving the game away, but let me see... The story concerns Adam Krug, whose wife dies just as a totalitarian party is taking charge of the state. Krug was at school with the new dictator, and they have a complex bully/victim relationship - at least, complex from the dictator's point of view. Distracted by grief, Krug sees the new regime as clearly absurd, and the black comedic...more

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Nov 17, 2011 L.M. Ironside rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: literary-fiction, yay-angst, eat-prose-with-spoon

Let me get this out of the way first: I have a lot of respect for 1984. It's a good book. It's a great book, in fact. George Orwell was a master at his craft.

But Bend Sinister is so amazing, so delicious and so emotionally deep that as good as 1984 is, Bend Sinister still manages to feel like "1984 done right."

Nabokov uses the full force of his incredibly nuanced, unique command of language to paint a picture of a totalitarian regime. His images are beautiful and stunning, and the story at the...more

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Dec 20, 2011 Matt rated it 3 of 5 stars

A very literary book of the Orwellian genre. In fact, Nabokov thinks so too, as he refers to Orwell as a "mediocre english writer" in the introduction! Disregarding the complete absence of humility, Nabokov's ability is truly remarkable considering he was not writing in his first language...

Books like 1984 and Bend Sinister serve as stark reminders to anyone who takes their freedom for granted, or underestimates the willingness of the average citizen to jump on board whichever train of thought...more

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Dec 22, 2008 lahvyndr rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love this man's command of English...
of the written word (there are segments in something slavic though I can't tell if he was making them up or if they're transliterated Russian) really.

The plot is completely bleak...but it's unimportant to the telling, the craft, the music of the words as they fall together on a page. This would be so fun to read aloud, to taste each phrase as the puns make you smile, to discover which voice to use in characterizing the actors, the author, the participants.....more

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Aug 16, 2009 najla rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: necessary

this and lolita i have read and re-read. i hesitate to say "cinematic" as that word is used to describe too many things, and means nothing anymore, and besides, vlad probably wouldn't agree; but maybe theatrical in the sense that this story feels like it plays out in a small black box. the ceilings too low, the walls framing both sides of every scene, and a hyper-reality like the trollies are miniature and pulled on strings through the miniature sets. and then the legs cut out from under you (as...more

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Mar 21, 2012 Chris Gager rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Next after "A Bend in the River". Kind of strange... similar titles by two great writers so close together on the library shelves. I was looking at this one while actually looking for "Ada"(which wasn't there) and decided to read Naipaul first as I've only read "Biswas" so far. I'll start tomorrow(Tues.) as the library is closed Mondays. So many books, so many writers, so little time...
First night... I'm about halfway through. In the intro VN dumps all over Orwell. A literary dispute? I'm not we...more Next after "A Bend in the River". Kind of strange... similar titles by two great writers so close together on the library shelves. I was looking at this one while actually looking for "Ada"(which wasn't there) and decided to read Naipaul first as I've only read "Biswas" so far. I'll start tomorrow(Tues.) as the library is closed Mondays. So many books, so many writers, so little time...
First night... I'm about halfway through. In the intro VN dumps all over Orwell. A literary dispute? I'm not well read enough to participate. VN's first novel upon moving to America. Not particularly well received. Perhaps because of the frequent occurrence of convoluted(though beautiful) verbal mazes. Close reading required and even then... As in "Pale Fire" a "new" language is created: "togliwn ochnat divodiv" and "radabarbara". Fun stuff.
- Uses the term "consumer" in it's current meaning. 1946...
- On death: "My intelligence does not accept the transformation of physical discontinuity into the permanent continuity of a nonphysical element escaping the obvious law, nor can it accept the inanity of accumulating incalculable treasures of thought and sensation, and thought-behind-thought and sensation-behind-sensation, to lose them all at once and forever in a fit of black nausea followed by infinite nothingness. Unquote."
- Lots of untranslated French, German etc.
Seems like VN might have made subsequent novels more "readable" after the flop of this one. Probably will finish tonight.
But I didn't... tonight(Saturday) for sure.
- On the Toad: "... and one must wonder what tremendous willpower a man must possess to refrain from squeezing out the blackheads that clogged the the coarse pores on and near the wings of his fattish nose."
- I wonder if Frank Herbert was influenced by VN? Herbert: Kwisach Haderach, gom jabbar, Gurney Halleck, Baron Harkonen. VN: laderod kappe, kwazinka, dragotzennyi, mirovovo mashtaba.
- On the futility of translation: "From a practical point of view, such a waste of time and material(those headaches, those midnight triumphs that turn out to be disasters in the sober light of morning!) was almost criminally absurd, since the greatest masterpiece of imitation presupposed a voluntary limitation of thought, in submission to another man's genius."
- "timid warrior whalemen" poem - from Moby Dick(I think).
- Ivor Aasen - creator of "New Norwegian".
And what of the book? I'll have to wait until I finish. I remember "1984" as being pretty vivid back in my teenage years when I read it. Certainly seemed to create an effective atmosphere of oppression and dread. The purposeful mangling of speech and "truth" in a not-benign dictatorship. The French Revolution, Germany(Der Fuhrer), Italy(Il Duce), Spain(The Generalissimo), Russia(Lenin/Stalin) and all the rest. What's up is down etc. I read "Animal Farm" more recently as well as long ago and mostly liked it. Crude but effective. Certainly not great literature and neither is "1984". Can it happen here in the shining light of democracy? Maybe... if it does it's more likely to come from the right than the left. Those (white-male)people are full of fear and resentment(not to mention ignorance). In a recent letter to the editor in a local paper a Paulist claimed that Hitler and Mussolini were "leftists". HUH!
Now finished a couple of nights ago. It's a tough book for me to review. I want to give it a 5 but... I've previously read and 5*ed "Lolita" and "Pale Fire" but I was frustrated with this one. I'm a non-intellectual reader and found it difficult to stay with VN on his lyric/poetic verbal flights and even though I did study German and French (way)back in the day I missed a lot of that stuff too. VN's conclusion that totalitarianism is just too stupid to give the time of day to(in serious literature) is not sufficient to the catastrophic human damage that these regimes inflict. One is reminded of the behaviour of those Maryland Nat. Guard/Reservists at Abu Graib. America is loaded with manipulable dead-heads like that. Clueless losers given power over the helpless. The scenes near the end are focused and effective but then he lets you know that he's basically detached at the close. Krug wakes up but it's way too late. Who CAN understand it? Historians maybe... some day.
The "plot" seemed to exist mainly as vehicle to introduce VN's many digressions about life/love/suffering/loss/death circling around Krug's plight. One moral: pay attention! Krug was warned but he was too absorbed and distracted to "see" the danger to him and his son. A few more notes:
- krakhMALCHICKi - pre-Burgess.
- David's fate reminds one of what happened to VN's father... a "mistake".
3.5 stars. (less)

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Jul 13, 2012 Matthew rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, read-in-2012

In my edition of the book, Nabakov clearly remarks what his books isn't: a comment on Nazis, Communists, or totalitarianism in general, and what it is, a book about the relationship between fathers and sons, as well as a chance for him to mess around with words as he is wont to do.

However, we all read into things as we wish, and I read it as a delightful satire of Communism. The part where there are alternate takes on Hamlet, each of them more comic and absurd than the next, is wonderful. Kafka-...more

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Dec 22, 2011 Jessica rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

so i'm again just using this book review spot as a placeholder for other book-y things in my life (SEE BELOW), though i went w/ nabokov specifically because he has crawled into my SKULL lately -- could easily have opted for recent reads laughter in the dark, transparent things, the real life of sebastian knight, the eye, or (currently) despair or pale fire, but bend sinister i'm going to go ahead & declare one of the best novels i've ever read.

what, bring it.

on the one hand shut up nabokov O...more

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Jan 22, 2010 Tim Miles rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: death-valley

My edition has a really off-putting foreword, where Nabokov says that he has written the best authoritarian novel ever and that Orwell can cram it, starts explicitly listing the motifs he has worked into his book--it's his first in English, I can understand pride in this, but it should not have been the first damn thing I read. The protagonist is basically just Pnin in a hilariously inept police state, which means this is a book where you can see every blow coming, where the ending is just Nabok...more

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Nov 17, 2012 Nina rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book started out fine and understandable to me. Funny scene of a man leaving a hospital, trying to get home but not allowed off the bridge because of the incompetent guards on each side. Nabakov emphasizes the absurdity of Russian politics and government at the time. However, he launches into this long spiel about the childhoods of his friends which further digs deeper into his dislike for the Russian system. When the transcription of the dreams started (which at no point are first describe...more

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May 14, 2012 Don Mitchell rated it 5 of 5 stars

I listened to the marvelous Audible production narrated by Robert Blumenfeld.

This is the third Nabokov book I've "read" and further elevates my appreciation of his intellect, imagination, and wry wit. He is the best surrealist I know of. His writing puts me in a great mood even while describing tragedies. Its twists and subtle perversions lead the me down odd alleys. His descriptions of the absurdity of everyday life as being so prevalent permeate my imagination in such a way that I almost becam...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Dylan Mcarthur rated it 5 of 5 stars

Flat-out wonderful. A celebrated professor consumed with the death of his wife fails to notice that the newly ascendant dictator of his country, whom he tormented in his youth, has not forgotten and is slowly closing in. Nabokov contrasts his own magical vision of life with the shadow-puppetry of "important" ideas---ideas to reform and improve human beings---which at best simplify men and women beyond recognition and at worst leave lives broken and extinguished in their wake. Although much that...more

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Oct 12, 2012 William Herschel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own, 2012

oh, Nabokov.

Your prose is extremely sexy. And I don't mean you're always describing Lolitas and Adas and the like, but the way you describe and isolate the little every-days and play them every-which-way and turn them inside-out and make them oh-so-clever. You have written the most sensual things I've ever had the pleasure of reading often without the shedding of a single garment.

And this, a novel of governing gone terribly wrong in the form of political dystopia wherein to achieve true human en...more

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Mar 28, 2010 Rose rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bend Sinister (1947) was the first novel Vladimir Nabokov wrote while living in America. Having never read his most famous novel, Lolita, this was my first Nabokov novel. We meet our protagonist, Krug, at a moment of great personal despair in his life. An influential professor of philosophy (perhaps more used to dealing in the abstract?), Krug is grappling with his wife's recent death in a very concrete way. At the same time, the political climate of his country reflects his emotional turmoil, f...more Bend Sinister (1947) was the first novel Vladimir Nabokov wrote while living in America. Having never read his most famous novel, Lolita, this was my first Nabokov novel. We meet our protagonist, Krug, at a moment of great personal despair in his life. An influential professor of philosophy (perhaps more used to dealing in the abstract?), Krug is grappling with his wife's recent death in a very concrete way. At the same time, the political climate of his country reflects his emotional turmoil, for the unnamed nation (bearing quite a few similarities to Soviet Russia) has recently fallen into a police state. Despite his disinterest in the political situation, Krug lands uncomfortably in the midst of an ideological battlefield. Unfortunately for our mourning professor, the new dictator, Paduk, wants nothing more than to secure the political endorsement of the country's most famous philosopher (and his grade-school classmate) in order to validate his regime.

Bend Sinister is the second of Nabokov's novels originally written in English. That he was able to publish in both Russian and English is so amazing to me. I am always in awe of people who can speak two languages fluently. But that's nothing compared to Nabokov's ability to publish original, acclaimed works in two languages (and speak several others). Clearly he had a real gift for language and linguistics, a gift that he had to have been interested in developing and to which he must have applied himself with great devotion (purely conjecture, I know, but this is how I imagine him mastering both languages - with both passion and hard work!).

Nabokov, as I understand, is known for his word-play (surely a by-product of his uncanny ability to manipulate languages). Bend Sinister certainly provides plenty of examples of Nabokov's linguistic gymnastics. His characters fluidly move between languages (sometimes with translations, sometimes without). And I'll be the first to admit that I was a little alarmed upon realizing that I didn't know the definitions of several words in just the first few pages... and these pages were written by a man whose first language was Russian! The vocabulary, of course, turned out to be the least of my concerns when I reached a very lengthy chapter in which a character analyzes a production of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Moving between complex analysis, humorous critique, and word-play in at least three languages (I recall English, Russian, and French), Nabokov seemed to be using this chapter simply to play with language and literature.

There is no denying Nabokov's genius - in his spare time he studied and contributed to the field of entomology (he had a well-known fascination with butterflies) and taught at Stanford, Wellesley, Cornell, and Harvard. He was also a bit of a pompous jerk, writing in his introduction to Bend Sinister that "automatic comparisons between Bend Sinister and Kafka's creations or Orwell's cliches would go merely to prove that the automaton could not have read either the great German writer or the mediocre English one." So, Nabokov, tell us how you really feel about Orwell. But truth be told, what Nabokov does, he does well (no matter how snottily).

I think this book could have been a real chore to read. The vocabulary, the shifting perspectives, the imagery, the sometimes "stream-of-consciousness" descriptions, the obscure (and obvious, for that matter) literary allusions - all could have been distracting to the point of frustration. Strangely enough, I never got too bogged down in Nabokov's language or style, choosing instead to just ride it out and grab on tight whenever I again caught a thread of the main plot or theme. Maybe my failure to follow Nabokov's train of thought only proves I'm just not enough of a scholar (... that's okay, I already knew). But at the same time, I have to wonder how much Nabokov really wants the reader to understand. In passages where he gets carried away on hyper-intellectual tangents, he seems more like a scholar entertaining himself with his cleverness than an author sharing a story with his readership. And sure, maybe I should be insulted by such callous disregard for the reader. But in the end, I didn't mind the ride.(less)

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About Vladimir Nabokov

Russian: Владимир Владимирович Набоков

Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist. He also made significant contributions to lepidoptery and had an interest in chess problems.

Nabokov's Lolita (1955) is frequently cited as his most important novel, and is at any rate his most widely known one, exhibiting the love of intrica...more

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“Theoretically there is no absolute proof that one's awakening in the morning (the finding oneself again in the saddle of one's personality) is not really a quite unprecedented event, a perfectly original birth.” — 50 people liked it

“Ink, a Drug.” — 40 people liked it

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