Name: Pnine
Rating: 3.76271186440678 (59 reviews)
ISBN: 9782070384624

Vladimir Nabokov

Michel Chrestien

Pnine

The National Book Award-nominated classic finds hapless Russian migr Timofey Pnin precariously employed on an American college campus in the 1950s, where he falls victim to subtle academic conspiracies and the manipulations of the narrator. 10,000 first printing.

Pnin

Karpe Diez

This is a richly sad story on being forced to live out-rooted in another place and in what almost feels another time. Where and when everything is so unfamiliar and no matter what you do, no real connections with other human beings around you seem achievable. And being mediocre only makes it even more impossible to survive...

To be fair, I adored the start of this book, and I ate everything "Pninian". It seemed to be very alluding to me and I loved the character Pnin. He was so naive whilst also being so wise to me for some unknown reason, and I found the backstories and the flashbacks and the flashforwards to be very attractive in my initial opinion.

I loved the narritive story. I loved how our narrator was very chatty but also in a formal way, he tended to acknowledge the audiance alot, and used collective words like "our" and "we" which I also loved quite a bit. 

What I started to feel throught the book, however, that it just dragged on. I found myself getting bored and my mind was absolutely wandering to different topics before i caught myself out and carried on reading. I don't even think it was the classic literature writting style, it's just i did not have alot of care for what was going on, because everything just dragged on. 

surtified™

To be fair, I adored the start of this book, and I ate everything "Pninian". It seemed to be very alluding to me and I loved the character Pnin. He was so naive whilst also being so wise to me for some unknown reason, and I found the backstories and the flashbacks and the flashforwards to be very attractive in my initial opinion.

I loved the narritive story. I loved how our narrator was very chatty but also in a formal way, he tended to acknowledge the audiance alot, and used collective words like "our" and "we" which I also loved quite a bit. 

What I started to feel throught the book, however, that it just dragged on. I found myself getting bored and my mind was absolutely wandering to different topics before i caught myself out and carried on reading. I don't even think it was the classic literature writting style, it's just i did not have alot of care for what was going on, because everything just dragged on. 



"In Pnin, Nabokov has created another unique and compelling novel with his memorable portrait of a Russian scholar caught up in the mystifying and perilous intrigues of a small American college."--from page [1].

Nelson Zagalo

Nabokov é um dos escritores que mais respeito, nomeadamente pelo seu virtuosismo formal, ou capacidade para laborar o texto como se de uma jóia se tratasse. Contudo nesta obra esse labor torna-se excessivo, adquirindo estatuto de predominância sobre tudo o resto, não apenas sobre a história, mas sobre a própria narrativa. 

Em termos de história e seus personagens, temos um universo próximo de “Lolita”, uma América pastoral dos anos 1950, personagens principais isolados e com muitos tiques, mas com uma diferença, aqui não existe um verdadeiro objeto de interesse para além do personagem em si. Nada o move, e o relato limita-se a dar conta da enfadonha ausência de vida, sendo também aquilo que garante a comicidade do relato, mas até neste, Nabokov se perde por trabalhar as suas gags sempre de modo muito cruzado, minimal ou encerradas em conhecimento literário russo profundo.

Se quisermos atravessar por entre o vazio interior e o destrinçar dos sentires de um professor universitário americano, sem tão grande capacidade estilística é verdade mas com verdadeiro aprofundamento psicológico, podemos recorrer em vez desta à obra esquecida de John Williams, “Stoner” (1965).

“Do ponto onde me encontrava vi-os diminuir na moldura da estrada, entre a casa mourisca e o choupo da Lombardia. Depois, o carrito ultrapassou ousadamente o camião da frente e, livre por fim, disparou pela estrada luzidia, que se podia imaginar estreitando até se transformar num fio de ouro na neblina suave em que monte após monte faziam da distância beleza e onde simplesmente não se pode prever que milagre poderá dar-se.” (p.156)

No campo da narrativa, a estrutura sofre pelo contorcionismo aplicado por Nabokov ao texto, que dedica grandes trechos a um detalhamento espiralado de cada evento, personagem, ou espaço. É a prosa o centro, sendo a narrativa mera obrigatoriedade, pró-forma de relato.

Professor Timofey Pnin, late of Tsarist Russia, is now precariously perched at the heart of an American campus. Battling with American life and language, Pnin must face great hazards in this new world: the ruination of his beautiful lumber-room-as-office; the removal of his teeth and the fitting of new ones; the search for a suitable boarding house; and the trials of taking the wrong train to deliver a lecture in a language he has yet to master. Wry, intelligent and moving, Pnin reveals the absurd and affecting story of one man in exile.

Simon Elliott Stegall

Underwhelming as Nabokov goes, but still chock full of delightful humor and prose. The ending felt rushed and overall the booked seemed to lack theme. I've never been huge on satire, so I was thankful this one was short. Still, Nabokov is a master of the craft no matter what he's writing about.

Daryl Houston

I expected a lot out of this one and was really underwhelmed. Maybe I didn't read it closely enough (well, I know I didn't read it closely enough). I'm crossing my fingers that Lolita will prove more captivating.

Hannah W

baikalsturgeon

Alawander Bouston 

David

ikkychan

Depicts the struggles of Timofey Pnin, a professor of Russian, who attempts to adapt himself to life at an institution.

Pnine

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