Pniniad: Vladimir Nabokov And Marc Szeftel (Caribbean Studies)

Pniniad: Vladimir Nabokov and Marc Szeftel (Caribbean Studies)

In this wry, judiciously balanced, and thoroughly engaging book, Galya Diment explores the complicated and fascinating relationship between Vladimir Nabokov and his Cornell colleague Marc Szeftel who, in the estimate of many, served as the prototype for the gentle protagonist of the novel Pnin. She offers astute comments on Nabokov's fictional process in creating Timofey Pnin and addresses hotly debated questions and long-standing riddles in Pnin and its history. Galya Diment is professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Thomas L. & Margo G. Wyckoff Endowed Faculty Fellow at the University of Washington, Seattle. She is the author, most recently, of A Russian Jew of Bloomsbury (2011). Review "Galya Diment's Pniniad... is a scrupulously researched study of one of the possible sources for Pnin which throws a good deal of light on its genesis and composition... Diment believes that the 'humanized' Pnin is, in many ways, the 'Szeftelized' Pnin." --David Lodge, in his Introduction to Everyman Library's edition of Pnin"Galya Diment's illuminating study Pniniad..." --Zadie Smith, in Changing My Mind"Pniniad is not only well researched and insightful, it is also immensely human -- a welcome reminder of what the Humanities should really aim to achieve." --Slavic and East European Journal"Pniniad is not only a fine scholarly book but also a very good read... One discerns here the influence of Nabokov, but luckily not Szeftel." -- Slavonic and East European Review"Galya Diment's 1997 Pniniad has been able to produce the delicate mix of sensitivity, sadness, and laughter required of any appraisal of this bizarre writer's life and work. Diment produced not only a great study of the writer, but the best read this year." -- Charles Mudede in The Stranger"If comparisons to a fictional being threaten at times to slight the human dignity of Marc Szeftel, then Diment's final dedication of her book to Szeftel and all of the pain that he could never transcend -- either in Pnin's way, driving off into an unbounded fictional horizon, or in Nabokov's way, coattails flying, an artist passing into immortality -- must set things right." -- Slavic Review"It is difficult to imagine that a better book could have been written on this subject." -- Nabokov Studies"In her conclusion, Diment comments 'While writing this book I often found myself wishing I could do with Szeftel's life what Nabokov had done with Pnin's....' 'Herein,' she continues, 'lies the difference between the writers of fiction and the rest of us.' Diment should not so easily count herself among 'the rest of us.' She uses a barrage of 'facts' gleaned from diaries, letters and personal interviews; nonetheless, just as Nabokov, she does tell a story, and this story happens to be as poignant as the novel Pnin." -- Canadian Slavonic Papers From the Back Cover "Pniniad is an utterly absorbing, sad, and touching book." -Robert Alter, University of California, Berkeley"A fine piece of work, meticulous, judicious, sensitive, and well shaped." -- Brian Boyd, University of Auckland About the Author Galya Diment is professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Thomas L. & Margo G. Wyckoff Endowed Faculty Fellow at the University of Washington, Seattle. She is the author of, among others, Pniniad: Vladimir Nabokov and Marc Szeftel (1997).