Subject
Nabokov mentions & Gardner query
Date
Body
From: ESAMPVN@aol.com
A capsule review of the paperback edition of THE STORIES OF VLADIMIR NABOKOV,
by Nancy Pate of the Orlando Sentinel, appeared in the March 9 issue of the
Boulder Daily Camera (and, presumably, in other newspapers of the
Knight-Ridder chain). It is brief enough, I think, to be quoted in full:
"These 65 shimmering tales, written between 1920 and 1952, range from the
whimsical to the bittersweet to the almost cruelly clever. The themes are
those that sustain Nabokov's longer works-memory and coincidence, exile and
loss, the connections between life and art. In "La Veneziana," a man is so
attracted to a woman in a painting that he "enters" her world. In "A Nursery
Tale," a man's bargain with a she-devil finds him collecting Lolitalike
would-be lovers. And in "The Admiralty Spire," the narrator is so
self-absorbed that he believes a writer has stolen the story of his first,
great love. As always, Nabokov is the enchanter."
From the Early Spring 1997 Daedalus Books catalog blurb for John Gardner's ON
WRITERS AND WRITING: "In piece after piece we see Gardner...examining the
work of writers he admires-Saul Bellow, Vladimir Nabokov, Philip Roth, John
Cheever, Larry Woiwode, and Joyce Carol Oates..."
By the way, does anyone know if VN ever expressed an opinion on Gardner? As
an admirer of both, I would be curious to know.
Earl Sampson
A capsule review of the paperback edition of THE STORIES OF VLADIMIR NABOKOV,
by Nancy Pate of the Orlando Sentinel, appeared in the March 9 issue of the
Boulder Daily Camera (and, presumably, in other newspapers of the
Knight-Ridder chain). It is brief enough, I think, to be quoted in full:
"These 65 shimmering tales, written between 1920 and 1952, range from the
whimsical to the bittersweet to the almost cruelly clever. The themes are
those that sustain Nabokov's longer works-memory and coincidence, exile and
loss, the connections between life and art. In "La Veneziana," a man is so
attracted to a woman in a painting that he "enters" her world. In "A Nursery
Tale," a man's bargain with a she-devil finds him collecting Lolitalike
would-be lovers. And in "The Admiralty Spire," the narrator is so
self-absorbed that he believes a writer has stolen the story of his first,
great love. As always, Nabokov is the enchanter."
From the Early Spring 1997 Daedalus Books catalog blurb for John Gardner's ON
WRITERS AND WRITING: "In piece after piece we see Gardner...examining the
work of writers he admires-Saul Bellow, Vladimir Nabokov, Philip Roth, John
Cheever, Larry Woiwode, and Joyce Carol Oates..."
By the way, does anyone know if VN ever expressed an opinion on Gardner? As
an admirer of both, I would be curious to know.
Earl Sampson