Transparent Things

TRANSPARENT THINGS
by Vladimir Nabokov

 Nomination: National Book 1973

 Date Read: April 22, 2020

 Hugh Person travels to Europe four times over the course of his life, the first, most memorably, his father dies in a dressing room. The second, under the guise of an interview with an author he is editing, Person falls in love with his, soon to become, wife. The third he is recovering from "madness," having killed his wife in a dream-like state and the fourth he seeks to relive certain key moments from his past.

 I found it surprising that Person did not serve longer time after having killed his wife, madness or no. Their union was tepid at best but I don't believe he hated her or consciously intended to kill her. On his fourth journey, I never fully understood what he was trying to recapture - joy, love, understanding, peace? Person was a rather opaque character for a "transparent" novel.

 I found Transparent Things to be a brief, eccentric journey into the mind of Nabokov. His disturbing portrayal of Person as a self-interested man unable to really stake his claim in the world was borderline mad genius. This is simply a brief sampling of Nabokov's abilities.

 Looking Forward: Look At The Harlequins, The Luzhin Defense, Pale Fire, Pnin

 Looking Back: Lolita

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