Pale Fire

Loving the concept, but maybe the work is either beyond me or just not all that interesting….  Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire, written in 1962, is lauded among one of the all-time great works, a far cry from his Lolita.  I think the structure is brilliant, a fictional poet writing a 999 line, four cantos poem that also contains a forward and a very long commentary on the fictional work.  It could be compared to a documentary of a fictional character with an intro into this fictional character’s life and then an explanation of what the documentary is about.  The level of “dissection” of the 999 poem and the meaning associated with the lines and context of the characters in the poem was quiet intriguing, though an overkill with some passages.  The four cantos reflect four stages of the protagonist’s life and his eventual search for meaning after dealing with the death of his daughter, Hazel.  Suicide seems to be a preoccupation with the other and one is unsure if in fact his daughter committed suicide or not.  The title of the work is taken from Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens, one of his lesser known works.  If you really want to stretch your mind and place yourself in a “story” within a story this one may be for you.  I actually was rolling along through the forward and first two cantos and felt the last two and the commentary was draining and “over the top” with messages and meanings that didn’t draw me in as a reader.  I think the style, a precursor to the metafiction genre, gets this book higher ratings than the average reader is looking, hence it’s critical acclaim.  I got lost as the cantos droned on.  Give me Lolita anytime!