Reading List: Pnin - Vladimir Nabokov

Hello readers and welcome back to another installment of the Reading List. As mentioned previously I have tried to work in more BIPOC and female authors on this list, but I also have a pretty big backlog of “old white dudes” sitting on bookshelves around my apartment that I need to read to round out the list. To that end I decided to go with a book and author I have wanted to read for ages and never got around to: Vladimir Nobokov’s 1957 tale Pnin.

A bizarre college story wrapped around an enigmatic main character, Pnin revolves around the titular hero (first name “Timofey”) as he navigates the collegiate world of Waindell (based on places the real Nabokov taught) and attempts to continue his Russian language studies and teaching. When we first meet Pnin he is on the wrong train to give a lecture. Fortunately he gets that straightened out and we see him giving the lecture to a throng of what he perceives to be dead people from his life. We then see him reconciled with his ex-wife Liza and we learn that she tricked Pnin into coming to America to marry, only to leave him for a psychologist, Dr. Eric Wind. Pnin finds a place to stay with the Clements but is kicked out when their daughter returns. Later Pnin meets Liza’s son for a visit but is flummoxed by his inability to relate to the boy, Victor, with books and a soccer ball. We then see Pnin entertaining people at a lodge by his Russian aptitude and that of his croquet playing, and the novel wraps up with an epic faculty party hosted by our main character. We are finally led to understand how the narrator knows Pnin as the narrator describes his run-ins with Pnin over the years and how the narrator is now the leader of the Russian department at Waindell college and wants Pnin to stay teaching, but sadly our main character has already left the grounds in his car.

This was without a doubt one of the weirdest and yet funniest books I have encountered in years, and made more so knowing now that it was based on much of Nabokov’s life as a college professor. The descriptions alone of the various characters are worth the price of admission (which comes in the form of many dense Russian phrases Pnin uses over the course of the book), and the story itself weaves its way from that part of the world to America. The other characters are all unique creations but by far the most work went into Pnin and his wanderings and thoughts. I don’t think I have come across a “college faculty” book that entertained me this much since Julie Schumacher’s Dear Committee Members.

I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who has yet to read Nabokov as I did, as it is a hilarious take on the collegiate world and the great writer was at the top of his game when he composed this ridiculous tale. Thank you for joining me along on this reading adventure.