Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov

I actually finished this book last month but I didn't have the time or energy to write a proper review. A few days have elapsed since and I can say that this book has some very beautiful passages that I think will remain with me for awhile. The aftermath of Pnin finding out he's about to be fired perfectly captures quiet grief. There was also a beautiful paragraph on melancholia and nostalgia:

Some chance intonation on the part of this slightly hoarse bird, combined with the warm wind pressing itself against Pnin in search of attention, recognition, anything, briefly reminded him of a dim dead day when he, a Petrograd University freshman, had arrived at the small station of a Baltic summer resort, and the sounds and the smells, and the sadness-

There is despair underlying Pnin despite masquerading as a comic novel. Pnin's struggles to adjust to American society. Although we don't see him despairing, we do witness the ridicule that he receives from his peers. The pnian blunders that he makes are simultaneously funny and sad. I think this is where Nabokov's mastery really shines, in his ability to make something comical without losing depth.

The entire time I was reading, I felt like Nabokov is the kind of writer I would have wanted to be. I'm compelled to read more from him (having previously only read Lolita, which was quite challenging compared to Pnin). I do wonder about him as a person though. Pnin contains very unapologetically anti-communist sentiments which was a quite a turn-off. I looked him up and apparently he was very critical of the leftist movement (at least the new left?). I don't have to see eye to eye on everything with the authors I read but if Pnin is any indication, his politics does seep through his work so I imagine that can be challenging as a reader. 

Nevertheless, I am willing to read more from him, if only because he writes really well.