Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov, 9/10
Like the majority of Nabokov works, Pnin is a literary masterpiece; however, it falls somewhat short of the standard set by Lolita and Invitation to a Beheading. Pnin chronicles the events and mishaps that befall a Russian emigre, Timofey Pnin, working as a professor at an American college in the 1940s. Nabokov interjects a great deal of humor into the work, especially when narrating Pnin's struggles adapting to American culture and his failures to master the English language. However, there's also an undercurrent of tragedy; at times, the reader sees just how lonely and isolated Pnin is in a culture that is, for the most part, alien to him.
"Many of the greatest things man has achieved are not the result of consciously directed thought, and still less the product of a deliberately coordinated effort of many individuals, but of a process in which the individual plays a part which he can never fully understand." - Friedrich Hayek
Last edited by ScipioCowboy : 02-09-2010 at 11:38 PM.
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