Sunday, March 5, 2006 10:26 AM PST

ON MY NIGHTSTAND The Star-Ledger Sun, 05 Mar 2006 5:31 AM PST

Vince Passaro is a contributing editor at Harper's magazine and author of the novel "Violence, Nudity, Adult Content." He has taught at Columbia University's graduate writing program, and he is at work on his second novel. Passaro spoke with freelance writer Dylan Foley by telephone from his home in Manhattan.

What have you been reading?

I recently finished Deborah Eisenberg's "Twilight of the Superheroes," which was just breathtaking. What she manages to do with fractured narratives and her ability to touch on psychological and social issues is amazing. I can't figure out how she takes you from the beginning of a story to the end. I like the fragmentary quality of her prose and the trenchant way she packs a sentence. Her air of knowing irony is pleasing to me.

I've read a lot of Vladimir Nabokov in the past year. I came late to Nabokov. The most recent thing I read was "Pnin," about a Russian professor teaching at a small American college. It's brilliant. At the beginning, you think he's just making fun of Pnin, but as the book goes on, you see the deep love Nabokov has for his character. Nabokov's prose is flawless. He can write a sentence that is 150 words long and you never miss a beat or a breath. Nabokov's writing is ornate, but at the same time it's crystal clear, like a beautiful cathedral.