August Book Club Selection: Speak, Memory

[theworm[$]]

erik_kosberg said

For August, Vladimir Nabokov’s Speak, Memory

I just grabbed the only copy on Ebay for $3.
Don't forget to get yours. I did see some other good deals on the web.

[lynnzop[$]]

I'm holding out for the library. My own doesn't have it, but the Omaha one does...I think we have reciprocity (I need to remember to call!!!)

[theworm[$]]

Oh, and don't forget this part:

erik_kosberg said

A clarification — there are two versions of Speak, Memory:

A. The original edition Speak, Memory AKA Conclusive Evidence
B. The revised version Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited

If at all possible, read the revised Speak Memory: An Autobiography Revisited

[Redlass]

I got it through an interlibrary loan. I read the first chapter, but it was after coming home exhausted. It started warping my brain with the talk about life before we were born, so I decided to get some sleep.

I think I have the original version, but I'm not sure. I'll check tonight.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

And here I just found my copy of Watership Down in my Big Box O'Books I Bought to Read under the bed Sunday. *sigh*

mj
who is certain that she will not find Vladimir Nabokov’s Speak, Memory in the Big Box O'Books I Bought to Read under the bed

[ms_n]

So far, I've enjoyed the memories he had of his mother.

[murasaki]

Eeek! I completely forgot. I can probably get it from the academy library though.

[soxfan[$]]

I've been recuperating from a stomach bug, so I caught up on a lot of reading this week. Good pick, Erik. :thumbs:

[emeleel]

I found it at the library yesterday. Almost missed it on the shelf and had to go look for help (I knew it was there, I'd checked the website) because it was packaged in with two regular books all rolled into one bound volume. Haven't started it yet, though.

[Redlass]

It took me awhile to get into it and I'm really glad that we have this book club or I might have given up (and I'm still not very far into it).

It's nice to read a book that is challenging--and I'm very challenged by this book.

[lynnzop[$]]

Picked up at the library this noon. Will start sometime this week.

Erik, do you have any "Pre" questions or topics for this book?

[erik_kosberg]

Not really. The texture of his writing style? It's been a couple of years I think since I read it the first time. Only about 30 pages into re-reading it now myself.

[Redlass]

I'm curious whether the texture is maintained through the entire book. It would seem difficult to do, and yet this is obviously a man who loves words and language.

[murasaki]

Has anyone else finished?

I had never read anything by Nabokov before--he's been one of those authors I avoid just because so many people who are what I consider "book snobs" are so insistent that everybody needs to read him and I also find the premise of Lolita a bit of a turn off.

Anyway, having plunged in, I found his prose style delicious. "Textured" is definitely a good description, as well as lucid. He does have a philosophical bent, like many other Russian authors I've read, but doesn't spend all his time cerebrating. It doesn't hurt that Nabokov had an extraordinary life, but I think that is partly due to circumstances and partly due to his way of looking at his life.

[jankp]

For next month's book, I thought in honor of Aurora Joy, murasaki's new daughter, that I'd select Mahlon F. Croft and Kinuko Croft's Sleeping Beauty. It's only 32 pages, but has gorgeous paintings and the story is more charming than other versions. Otherwise, there's the Trilogy of Sleeping Beauty by Anne Rice's pen name and it's erotica! Any preference? Both?

Jan

[Redlass]

I liked the bit about Nabakov's uncle--the one who twice escaped rather exciting fates.

[jankp]

I found a more fun selection: Gregory Maguire's Leaping Beauty, which has fractured fairy tales that include that of Sleeping Beauty. Should be fun!

Jan

[ms_n]

On describing his father on pages 177-178:

The preserved drafts of some of his proclamations (beginning "Grazhdane!" meaning "Citoyens!") and editorials are penned in a copy-book-slanted, beautifully sleek, unbelievably regular hand, almost free of corrections, a purity, a certainty, a mind-and-matter cofunction that I find amusing to compare to my own mousy hand and messy drafts, to the massacrous revisions and rewritings, and new revisions, of the very lines in which I am taking two hours now to describe a two-minute run of his flawless handwriting.

So much thought and care was taken to share moments and details of his life with a precision I admire. There is a kind of intimacy in communicating these recollections. I picture myself in a parlor viewing photographs and memorabilia with this incredible person. But, I'm glad I'm participating in this conversation in print, because I don't think he would stop every few words while I consult a dictionary. LOL

Knowing that he took so much time and effort in re-creating these images, filled with robust color, smells, and texture, I dont' feel quite as badly over taking so much time to consume it. Part laziness, part difficulty, I am not finished. But, it is not because I am not enjoying it. Strangely, I am developing a fondness for this writing. It's so richly conceived, however, that I am taking it in smaller portions, experiencing the full flavor and avoiding indigestion.

How he used certain experiences in his life in his books encourages me to read more of his works (such as making a discovery of a new type of butterfly and getting to name it) maybe someday when I grow up.

[theworm[$]]

I finally started this book, and though I'm only a bit into it, I'm really enjoying his style and description. I looked to see if it was translated and it appears that it was written in English. Am I right about that? The language is so rich and fluid - its almost like I want to let the words roll around on my tongue before digesting them.

[lynnzop[$]]

I'm just getting into it. I'm very interested in the time period - early 1900's Russia has always been one of my favorite periods), but I, unlike everyone else, am having a horrible time getting into the "texture" of the book.

I'm not much of an autobiography person, however, so that may be it. Still plodding along a bit each night. I have to say that Sharon's quotes are keeping me going - the snippets she's provided are wonderful.

[theworm[$]]

I expected to have more of a problem. I haven't read many autobiographies, and if I were to choose one, I would choose someone whose life was more familiar and who I already had some interest in. I don't know anything about Nabokov, so I'm delighted that the "texture" and that his approach to his story is grabbing my interest.

[ms_n]

ms_n said

(such as making a discovery of a new type of butterfly and getting to name it)

I should be more clear that the author is able to turn his disappointment IRL into a dream come true through fictional writing.

More sections that hooked me:

Colored hearing (his way of perception/learning) pp. 34-35

A detailed description of what a real mushroom is, his mother's love for Hodit' po gribi, and the interaction between his mother and himself, pp. 43-44

...she could be seen emerging from the nebulous depths of a park alley, her small figure cloaked and hooded in greenish-brown wool on which countless droplets of moisture made a kind of mist all around her.

The image of his widowed mother, pp.49-50

The double gleam on her fourth finger is two marriage rings--her own and my father's, which, being too large for her is fastened to hers by a bit of black thread.

Childlike wonder, p. 85:

And, fruitfully combining rhythmic pattern with rhythmic sound, I would unravel the labyrinthian frets on the linoleum, and find faces where a crack or a shadow afforded a point de repere for the eye. I appeal to parents: never, never say, "Hurry up," to a child.

On sleep, pp. 108-109:

All my life I have been a poor go-to-sleeper...the familiar axe is coming out of its great velvet-lined double-base case, initially I had no such comfort or defense: I had nothing--except one token light in the potentially refulgant chandelier of Mademoiselle's bedroom, whose door, by our family doctor's decree (I salute you, Dr. Sokolov!), remained slightly ajar.

Vladimir Nabokov's life was ordinary and extraordinary.