Have I read this before: Nope. But apparently I’m in a Nabokov mood right now, so let’s go.

Review: Pnin is like academia personified. He’s strange, he’s kind of odd-looking, he’s a bit socially awkward but also socially graceful in certain situations, he makes little absent-minded mistakes…he’s an old prof, basically. I like how we get an idea of who he is through these little snippets of incidents throughout his life.

My biggest issue was not knowing how “Pnin” was supposed to be pronounced, but then I found the most Nabokov way of explaining how it should be pronounced:

“In one of his essays Nabokov said it should be pronounced like “Up, Nina!” without the first and last letters.”

Favorite Part: Story-wise? Pnin not being sure if there is one professor with a certain last name or two different profs who look similar and have similar names. So he invites one of them to his housewarming party, calling him one of the names, and then that prof, upon leaving, is super confused because he’s a totally different dude than the two Pnin is confusing, haha.

Writing-wise? That good old Nabokov sentence that connects the very physical to the very cosmic:

“With the help of the janitor he [Pnin] screwed onto the side of the desk a pencil sharpener—that highly satisfying, highly philosophical implement that goes ticonderoga-ticon-deroga, feeding on the yellow finish and sweet wood, and ends up in a kind of soundlessly spinning ethereal void as we all must.”

(like ALL of Lolita was written like this; hence why it’s one of my favorites.)

Rating: 6/10