Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Pnin


I'm not yet done The Time Traveler's Wife but I have decided that the next book I want to read is called Pnin. The author is Vladimir Nabokov. It's a novella (meaning short novel...good news for those of us who have little time to read). I don't know a lot about it but a review that I read intrigued me.
Here's the review (by Zadie Smith):
"This novella is explicitly a book about ridicule and caricature-Professor Pnin is a joke of a man on a college campus. He's an awkward Russian emigre with bad English, false teeth, a clumsy sense of humour, a tendency to burst into tears or take offence at small slights. Everybody on campus can do an impression of him. He's a clown. But at the core of the book is the idea that there is a Pnin who is as real as the people who ridicule him. You are invited to laugh at him, and then you are humbled and shamed by your own laughter. It's a gorgeous, hilarious, humane book that uncovers the reality of a man's life in sly, piecemeal fashion. I think it's my favorite novel."

If anyone wants to read this book with me and give your thoughts on it, please do! I love it when other people are reading the same book as me. It makes it feel like more of an event. I will probably start reading it when I get it in a week or two. So join me if you like. Your local library either has a copy or can probably bring it in for you.

Corine wants me to read another Paulo Coelho book with her sometime...maybe The Alchemist?

2 comments:

Dagga said...

sounds like an interesting book I will see if I can find it and read it with you, I also recommend the Alchemist Paulo Coelho is a wonderful writer and the Alchemist one of my favorite books. I met Paulo Coelho last year (had my picture taken with him and he signed my copy of the alchemist) but
I did not get a chance to talk to him much unfortunatly.

elisabeth said...

i'm jealous