Justin Monisit’s Reviews > Pale Fire > Status Update
Justin Monisit
is 71% done
This book is brilliant. The part when he starts talking about the second Canto was just devestating to read, the parts with Zembla (after doing some research i.e. Sparknotes) actually bring another layer to this poem I didn't realize at first. It may be a little dense, but it's worth it
— Jan 11, 2020 05:36AM
Like flag
Justin’s Previous Updates
Justin Monisit
is finished
That ending was beautiful.
Sad it has ended because I don't know if I will read another book like this; so meta-textual, tongue-in-cheek, and yet brilliantly touching. Nabokov managed to write a masterpiece poem as a joke and then was able to spin a novel made entirely out of manic annotations out of it that is endearing, funny, and sad.
— Jan 18, 2020 05:40PM
Sad it has ended because I don't know if I will read another book like this; so meta-textual, tongue-in-cheek, and yet brilliantly touching. Nabokov managed to write a masterpiece poem as a joke and then was able to spin a novel made entirely out of manic annotations out of it that is endearing, funny, and sad.
Justin Monisit
is 97% done
Have one last footnote to read and then I'm done. What an amazing experience this book was. I've experienced every emotion to this book in a meta-textual sense - thinking this book was pretentious to believing this book is brilliant.
If the poem was anything less than great, this book would not have worked. But this "fake" poem written as a joke is a masterpiece, and the rest compliments it so well.
— Jan 18, 2020 08:38AM
If the poem was anything less than great, this book would not have worked. But this "fake" poem written as a joke is a masterpiece, and the rest compliments it so well.
Justin Monisit
is 85% done
Should finish this by tonight/tomorrow.
Not all of it is great, but every part adds to its overall brilliance. It may be a book I appreciate more than I enjoy, but those two feelings come very close to each other. Not a book I'll read twice but I'll never read a book quite like this again.
— Jan 15, 2020 12:32PM
Not all of it is great, but every part adds to its overall brilliance. It may be a book I appreciate more than I enjoy, but those two feelings come very close to each other. Not a book I'll read twice but I'll never read a book quite like this again.
Justin Monisit
is 60% done
This far into the book and I literally could not tell you what this book is about. I don't even know if I can tell you if I am enjoying this book (which I am...I think?).
It's really well written with poetic prose, but damn am I confused by the concurrent storylines.
— Jan 08, 2020 09:07PM
It's really well written with poetic prose, but damn am I confused by the concurrent storylines.
Justin Monisit
is 50% done
Welp I have absolutely no idea what's going on in this book - somehow talking about a King and a fictional country. Looking up a synopsis helps (spoilers be damned) but it's an interesting read still, if not a bit dense with just how wild the tangents get.
It's told entirely through footnotes of a poem that slowly build a narrative. And somehow it spins into 3 different stories from them.
— Jan 06, 2020 06:58PM
It's told entirely through footnotes of a poem that slowly build a narrative. And somehow it spins into 3 different stories from them.
Justin Monisit
is 39% done
The book could only be the poem itself and it would be a 5/5. It's that good, but I'm excited to read the deconstruction of this poem now and see what really makes this a novel.
— Jan 05, 2020 04:23PM
Justin Monisit
is 25% done
This is legitimately beautiful and it was written as a joke. This is one of the few pieces of poetry that has moved me - and apparently it was written as a joke.
Kind of spoiled it to myself by seeing why this book is so long, but now I'm excited to read that. The poem could stand on its own and it would have sold me already, but now there's an extra layer to it.
— Jan 05, 2020 11:34AM
Kind of spoiled it to myself by seeing why this book is so long, but now I'm excited to read that. The poem could stand on its own and it would have sold me already, but now there's an extra layer to it.
