Volume 9, Number 2 · August 3, 1967
Absolute Pitch
By Denis Donoghue
Nabokov: His Life in Art: A Critical Narrative
by Andrew Field
Little, Brown, 350 pp., $8.95
Mr. Field claims to be one of the few people who have read pretty nearly everything by Mr. Nabokov in Russian and English. I am sure the claim is sound. Another claim is more debatable: that his book is an innovation in criticism because it is 'structured in a way roughly corresponding to that of the narrative in fiction.' Later, he refers to Nabokov's Gogol as 'one of the five or six existing examples of narrative criticism.' I am not sure that there is a difference between narrative criticism and critical narrative, or that it matters. A critical book is only as good as the perceptions it contains. I should mention, however, that the touch of arrogance in the Foreword of Mr. Field's book is rarely felt in the book itself. By any name the critical narrative is an illuminating companion to the Life and Works of V. Nabokov. Mr. Field is particularly informative on the Russian side.
Review, 3599 words
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