- Hardcover: 228 pages
- Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co.; First Edition edition (16 Aug 2011)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0393079929
- ISBN-13: 978-0393079920
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 14.2 x 2.8 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,555,908 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness
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Review
The author at times brilliantly captures Nabokov's calculated whimsy.... The recountings of conversations with Dmitri, for example, are both lovely and informative... There are moments of real beauty here.
Product Description
Discovering happiness in reading the work of an extraordinary writer. The protagonist of Vladimir Nabokov's The Gift playfully dreamed of writing "A Practical Handbook: How to Be Happy." Now, Nabokov's own creative reader Lila Azam Zanganeh lends life to this vision with sly sophistication and ebullient charm, as she shares the delirious joy to be found in reading the masterpieces of "the great writer of happiness." Plunging into the enchanted and luminous worlds of Speak, Memory; Ada, or Ardor; and the infamous Lolita, Azam Zanganeh seeks out the Nabokovian experience of time, memory, sexual passion, nature, loss, love in all its forms, and language in all its allusions. She explores Nabokov's geography-from his Russian childhood to the landscapes of "his" America-suffers encounters with his beloved "nature," hallucinates an interview with the master, and seeks the "crunch of happiness" in his singular vocabulary. This beautifully illuminated book will both reignite the passion of experienced Nabokovians and lure the innocent reader to a well of delights as yet unseen.
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12 reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Why Can't I Share This Enthusiasm?
26 July 2011
Format:Hardcover
As a half-century reader and lover of Nabokov's writings, I purchased this title (in ebook form) when I first heard about it in a Seattle Times review. While I find the biographical information about its author quite intriguing, and wish her well, I fail to see the bases for all the gushing reviews. The book is quite skimpy (and I don't mean pages but substantive content). To me it is fey (in its "affected" sense) to the extreme. If it would serve to bring more readers to the joys and wonders of Nabokov (possibly one of its intentions) I believe it quite fails. In fact, on that basis, I think it is a real turn-off. I have trouble believing that Nabokov himself would have approved -- although he might have appreciated meeting and conversing with its author, as his son obviously did, and as I likely would myself (although I don't see her jumping at the opportunity!). Yes, I'm an old crank.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Enchanting at first, but then arrogant, empty and pretentious
18 Sep 2011
Format:Hardcover
One of these books that you can live without, written by an author who uses a big name as a prop for her own ambitions, and who strikes you as a cosseted, infatuated young writer, without real life experience and nothing interesting to say, tittering between daring to be a writer herself, and hiding behind so called "creative criticism." Enchanting at first, then simply pretentious; in short a waste of time. Good for literary students in need of cliff notes about Nabokov.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
A Great Read -- very accessible!
5 May 2011
Format:Hardcover
This book is a great insight into genuine forms of happiness, and how one might seize them through the works and words of an extraordinary writer. I would highly recommend it even if you have not read any of Nabokov's novels yet. This will want to make you plunge right in. A real delight.
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