Customer Reviews

TRANS-PARENT THINGS

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Vladimir Nabokov is one of the giants of the 20th century literature, and this very short novella is a perfect example of his writing genius. Despite the book's brevity (about 100 pages in the print edition), it is exceedingly complex and probably one of his more ambitious works. Its complexity will probably be insurmountable to someone unfamiliar with Nabokov's, especially later, writings. If you are looking to read something by Nabokov for the first time, this would not be the best place to start. The book is replete with wordplays, literary allusions and other tricks of trade for which he is famous. The plotline as such is hard to discern, and one cannot help but feel that the entire book is some very elaborate practical joke on his unsuspecting and naïve readers. This is especially likely since a lot of the material in the book deals with writing and publishing professions, even though these are touched upon in the most oblique of ways. Nabokov also peppers his narrative with instances of his protagonists' rather salacious sex lives, although these references are intellectualized to the point of being unrecognizable as passionate affairs of the flesh. This relentless intellectualization of people's lives done in a masterly literary style is precisely the most intriguing aspect of Nabokov's writing, and the reason why most of his works, this one included, are worth reading and rereading. Each repeated reading brings into focus new aspects of his work, and makes his novels feel eternally fresh and interesting. Few writers are able to accomplish the same feat.