Just in the nick of time for stocking stuffers comes a new book on how the Bunny-Volodya friendship came to a crashing dénouement against the rocky coast of how to translate Pushkin's Onegin. One review actually is entitled "When Pushkin Came to Shove," reminding us that Wilson had a distinct distaste for Nabokov's indefatigable love of punning. 

I have read positive reviews in both the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal, neither of which is by a Russian speaker. I am a little discomfited by the author's claim to "know a thing or two about Russian language and literature," but postulates that Ada is a pun on "ardor" and "ah, da (oh, yes)" - not very encouraging - oh, no.

You can check it out on Amazon.

Carolyn