Review: Pale Fire

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The format of the book is unusual, not your typical novel. All of it is fiction, where the form is a critical analysis book of a long poem. The long 99 line poem is called Pale Fire, by fictional American author John Shade. The bulk of the book is the commentary by Charles Kinbote, author of the foreword and editor of the poem. The commentary dissects the poem by lines, or sometimes just a word.

Kinbote was the neighbor, and “close friend” of the author in the last months of his life. Shade had just finished the poem when he died. Kinbote expected the poem to be about his country Zembla, where the king was overthrown, but escaped while being held captive.

The details of all this comes out in the commentary, which is not what the poem is about, but Kinbote misinterprets it, or adds all of his own details. It ends up being quite entertaining.

I even read the index entirely since there was humor found in those referenced notes. Nabokov writes so incredibly well. I love all the unique words he uses in his writing, makes for delightful reading.


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