RexLegendi reviewed Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
Review of 'Pale Fire' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
It took me some effort to get through Pale Fire (1962), one of the novels Vladimir Nabokov wrote while living in the United States. At first sight, it doesn’t appear to be a novel at all: the book contains a poem by the fictitious poet John Shade, accompanied by a foreword, commentary and index by a certain Charles Kinbote. Nothing is what it seems, however: Shade’s poem is but a mere excuse for Kinbote to tell his own story, which is so full of contradictions that the reader has no other choice than to query the narrator thoroughly. There is an excellent video on YouTube by The Waxwing Collective explaining Nabokov’s ingeniously constructed puzzle. Call me an idle reader, but I would have found the time nor peace of mind to do all that work myself.
And he was a very dear friend indeed! The calendar says I had known …
It took me some effort to get through Pale Fire (1962), one of the novels Vladimir Nabokov wrote while living in the United States. At first sight, it doesn’t appear to be a novel at all: the book contains a poem by the fictitious poet John Shade, accompanied by a foreword, commentary and index by a certain Charles Kinbote. Nothing is what it seems, however: Shade’s poem is but a mere excuse for Kinbote to tell his own story, which is so full of contradictions that the reader has no other choice than to query the narrator thoroughly. There is an excellent video on YouTube by The Waxwing Collective explaining Nabokov’s ingeniously constructed puzzle. Call me an idle reader, but I would have found the time nor peace of mind to do all that work myself.
And he was a very dear friend indeed! The calendar says I had known him only a few months but there exist friendships which develop their own inner duration, their own eons of transparent time, independent of rotating, malicious music.
After John Shade is murdered, the narrator manages to obtain the manuscript of his friend’s last work, Pale Fire, and appoints himself editor. His claim is rather grotesque: believing that Shade was inspired by ‘all the live, glamorous, palpitating, shimmering material’ he had lavished upon him, Kinbote argues that the poem is incomprehensible without his clarification. However, his comments do not shed any light on the poem. Instead, the narrator cherrypicks some lines to tell an overly fantastic story about an exiled king, Charles the Beloved of Zembla, and the regicide Jakob Gradus.
We never discussed, John Shade and I, any of my personal misfortunes. Our close friendship was on that higher, exclusively level where one can rest from emotional troubles, not share them.
Nabokov succeeded in shaping a fascinating character. Although Kinbote is an archetypical unreliable narrator, his writing is unstable: by lashing out at others who consider him ‘deranged’, ‘disagreeable’ or even ‘insane’, he reveals the other side of the mirror. (Dutch-speaking readers may recognise Jeroen Brouwer’s [b:Cliënt E. Busken|50998778|Cliënt E. Busken|Jeroen Brouwers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1580847925l/50998778.SY75.jpg|75845595] here.) Despite his narcissistic traits, there are reasons to pity the mocked refugee. His hidden agenda is the product of confusion and delusion rather than bad faith; his fantasies can be read in connection to a yearning for recognition. As in Nabokov’s earlier novel [b:Pnin|134000|Pnin|Vladimir Nabokov|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1674145806l/134000.SY75.jpg|1153252], the consequences of forced migration play an important role.
Pale Fire is an excellent book if you are keen to invest some time and energy. (I heartily encourage you to take a hard copy instead of a digital version, as the author invites you to go back and forth.) The narrator’s stories are at times somewhat tedious, but I had a great time searching for crucial elements in sub-sentences. Next time I read this novel, I should pay more attention to the poem itself.
