What a bonkers ‘novel’! I have so much admiration of the fact na sinagad ni VN ang Lolita clout niya to have a book like this actually get published. In the 60’s!! Wow.
Disorganised thoughts:
Antagal ko to binasa kase medyo challenging yung structure niya tapos parang andami kong nagugugol na oras sa pag gugol ng mga definitions 🤣 I learned na there are a lot of things na I didn’t know the English language actually have words for. As with his other novels din tbh. Kahit under 300 pages ung mga nababasa ko (Lolita, Pnin*), it took me monthhhhhs, pero ‘di in a way na parang pinupush ko nalang sarili ko tapusin, more like naeenjoy ko kasi na i-savour yung prose niya. Masyadong flakes kasi ng vocab tong si VN e… pero ang rewarding kase pag nagates ko na yung pinupunto ng mga sentences niya lalo na pag funny lmao.
Although medyo less of an instant love din tong Pale Fire compared to my experience with Lolita and Pnin. Minsan sobrang dense ng text (which I understand is on purpose kasi the commentary is written as a supplementary text by an academic) and some important details go over my head sometimes that I need to reread those passages again to get the gist (parang sa mga readings ko lang noon 😭). Pero once na unti-unti na napi-peel ang layers at lumalabas na yung topak ni Kinbote, mas on board na ko. Narealise ko rin na despite the narrative(s) being given piece by piece given the footnote structure, it (they?) is (are?) actually linear.
That bonkers commentary bit is so wildly different in tone sa 999-line poem which was actually so poignant it made me tear up when I read it! I can definitely say that it is great on its own. Yehey! I will definitely think about this book for a long time.
*Andami niyang cameo rito. Nabokov sinematik universe?!?!? Is this Pnin shade?
