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The Uncle Ruka Dream is probably a fake—it smacks somewhat too much of
an 'insider’s joke' by Nabokov along the lines of Gogol don't you
think? It’s like pretending some rich old aristocratic relative out of
the past—makes a long-distance call to Nabokov from St. Petersburg to
give him a hint for a winning Lotto number. Like Wilson once said—he
couldn’t believe anything Vladimir said. And after Kinbote and Humbert
Humbert—the idea of Nabokov as ‘reliable narrator’ seems rather
far-fetched one might think. Perhaps I’m just cynical, but this Brian
Boyd anecdote about a Harlequin-disguised Uncle Ruka helping his
beloved nephew in The American Years sounds more like the “Magician’s
Dice” being rolled tongue-in-cheek at Cornell, delivered in a voice of
sepulchral mock-resignation, before Nabokov aloofly makes his grand
Academe exit for a leisurely Montreaux Palace Hotel retirement. A
rather classy До свидания ("da-svee-da-nee-ye")?