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I moved through this one slowly because the story is told through footnotes on a poem. Lots of flipping back & forth, lots of poetic turns of phrase to sink your teeth into. I went in with trepidation, but enjoyed it a lot. Despite the high degree of "metafiction-ness" it's still a compelling story with more than a little humor. And even...slapstick? Who knew?
I get the feeling that Nabokov is the kind of guy who loves to lead readers on merry snipe hunts, especially the detail-oriented ones who ...more
I get the feeling that Nabokov is the kind of guy who loves to lead readers on merry snipe hunts, especially the detail-oriented ones who ...more
The audiobook was a really interesting way to re-experience this fabulous book. I read this book years ago when I was good friends with someone who was a huge Nabokov fan, but at this point, I only dimly remembered enjoying it. When reading the hardcopy, I couldn't resist the constant flipping back to the poem and following of cross references in the footnotes. In audio format, that's essentially impossible. Thus, I was forced to listen to the notes as a whole, in order, and essentially uninterr
...more
Yech! Not one for me...
It started with a bit of poetry which was sort of readable... at least, I understood the gist of the story though I struggle with classical references and a number of big words.
The rest of the mess begins after the poetry. The "editor" of this poetry is providing commentaries. In his commentary is a story of a fictitious kingdom and her king and his friendship with the poet. He sounds rather like an unreliable narrator and seriously, I'm not a fan at all of that trope. He ...more
It started with a bit of poetry which was sort of readable... at least, I understood the gist of the story though I struggle with classical references and a number of big words.
The rest of the mess begins after the poetry. The "editor" of this poetry is providing commentaries. In his commentary is a story of a fictitious kingdom and her king and his friendship with the poet. He sounds rather like an unreliable narrator and seriously, I'm not a fan at all of that trope. He ...more
I liked the reviewer who said:
"You throw gold stars into Pale Fire and the vanity of star-ratings is exposed."
Whereas that reviewer wanted to multiply the gold stars thrown on this novel, I merely give it a three of five. This is not because it's not great. It is great. It's one of those classic books, in this case a classic that describes the postmodern condition. But it's not everybody's cup of tea. And it is difficult reading. Not only does the reader scratch their head trying to figure what ...more
"You throw gold stars into Pale Fire and the vanity of star-ratings is exposed."
Whereas that reviewer wanted to multiply the gold stars thrown on this novel, I merely give it a three of five. This is not because it's not great. It is great. It's one of those classic books, in this case a classic that describes the postmodern condition. But it's not everybody's cup of tea. And it is difficult reading. Not only does the reader scratch their head trying to figure what ...more
Oct 13, 2007
Esceilenn
marked it as abandoned
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
1001-old-list,
1001-new-list
Jun 22, 2008
Potjy
marked it as to-find
Nov 27, 2010
Selvan
marked it as to-read
Aug 19, 2011
Heather (DeathByBook)
marked it as to-read
Sep 07, 2011
Jane
marked it as to-read
Apr 23, 2013
Jules
marked it as to-read
Jul 16, 2013
mr. x
marked it as poetry
Aug 27, 2013
Karen Michele Burns
rated it
it was amazing
Shelves:
my-5-star-books,
1001-books-completed
Oct 13, 2013
Dana Arbelaez
marked it as to-read
Jan 10, 2014
Jayalalita devi dasi
marked it as to-read
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
main-branch,
miscellany-to-read
Jun 10, 2014
Claire Jefferies
marked it as to-read
Jul 31, 2015
Lindsay
marked it as to-read
