by Vladimir Nabokov
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Product Description
Pnin is a professor of Russian at an American college who takes the wrong train to deliver a lecture in a language he cannot master. Pnin is a tireless lover who writes to his treacherous Liza: "A genius needs to keep so much in store, and thus cannot offer you the whole of himself as I do." Pnin is the focal point of subtle academic conspiracies he cannot begin to comprehend, yet he stages a faculty party to end all faculty parties forever.
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Average Customer Review:
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Brilliant on many levels, 2008-09-20
I thoroughly enjoyed this book on many levels. It does not have the showy complexity of Pale Fire, or the heavy weight impact of Lolita (my two favorites of the Nabokov oeuvre) but it is still a laudable companion to these other two masterpieces. Many have already commented on the delightful and heart-rending personality of Professor Pnin, and I found this part of the story to be extremely endearing. The bumbling but ever good-natured academic is a memorable character on par with Prof. Charles Kinbote. But I am sure that if that were all that we carry away from this misleadingly short novel, we would engender only distain from the author (the real life V. Nabokov not the narrator character in Pnin). I like to think that the central theme of this book is the life and death struggle between a very biased and unreliable narrator and the main character Pnin. The narrator is no objective chronicler of events, but an active participant, and personal tormentor of Pnin. Even at the end of the story the narrator is not above changing facts that we know to be true, such as suggesting that Pnin had the wrong lecture notes in the events at the start of the novel. I also think that the novel has a very positive ending, as we see Prof. Pnin finally elude the clutches of the disagreeable narrator and escape the very bounds of the novel. Recall that the narrator is in vain pursuit as Pnin escapes up a shining road that was "narrowing to a thread of gold in the soft mist where hill after hill made beauty of distance and where there was simply no saying what miracle might happen." And we do know a little of what was beyond that hill for Prof. Pnin as he makes a brief appearance in Pale Fire as a faculty member of the presumably much more highly respected Wordsmith College along side such notables as John Shade and the less accomplished Charles Kinbote.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Very Fine, 2008-06-19
Nabokov's brilliant and evocative prose style once again comes through in this elegant novel about a bewildered professor of Russian who is not dissimilar from the author. This novel is a fine combination of farcical humor and introspective reflection; it is both cool and finely polished as well as experimental. Although Nabokov occasionally falls into the pitfalls of the academic/farce genre, he is generally able to keep the book alive with curious uses of the narrator as character, as well as various digressions into other ancillary characters. A fine work, though it is not Nabokov at his best.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A Perfect Small Novel, 2008-01-27
Nabokov achieves perfect balance as he tells the story of Timofey Pnin, a bumbling Russian émigré and permanent associate professor. Here, Professor Pnin is oddly lovable and out-of-place in America. But he is also easy prey--exploited cruelly by his ex-wife and mocked mercilessly by his colleagues, who make Pnin impressions and stories a staple at campus cocktail parties. With this balance, PNIN, the novel, is both sweetly engaging and cruel. At moments, the Nab seems like he's torturing a puppy. Here's Pnin playing croquet:
"As soon as the pegs were driven in and the game started, the man was transfigured. From his habitual, slow, ponderous, rather rigid self, he changed into a terrifically mobile, scampering, mute, sly-visaged hunchback. It seemed to be always his turn to play. Holding his mallet very low and daintily swinging it between his parted spindly legs (he had created a minor sensation by changing into Bermuda shorts expressly for the game), Pnin foreshadowed every stroke with nimble aim-taking oscillations of the mallet head, then gave the ball an accurate tap, and forthwith, still hunched, and with the ball still rolling, walked rapidly to the spot where he had planned for it to stop....
PNIN is a small novel with a narrow focus on its hero, mostly as he lives near and works at second-rate Waindell College. Even so, Nabokov connects Pnin to great events, such as the Russian Revolution and World War II, as well as to important human questions, such as friendship, loyalty, identity, and excellence. Reviewed from these perspectives, this comically cruel story of a small man has great depth and significance. This helps make PNIN the perfect small novel.
Highly recommended!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Short But A Great Read - But Not Like Nabokov's Other Novels, 2007-01-20
Nabokov is famous both for his non-fiction analysis of literature and for his fictional works, especially on topics such as obsession and compulsive behaviour. The book is less intense that Lolita or Laughter in the Dark.
I started to read all of his works and eventually made my way to Pnin. I had not read any comments or reviews on the book prior to reading the story.
This is a compelling read. It is well written; and, in many ways it is a powerful novel. I found it hard to put down once underway. Technically - just as a short novel - it is almost faultless as are many of Nobokov's other works. He is a master story teller and he is very skilled in the construction of a literary novel.
Some might not like the subject, and the story of the bumbling professor is slightly depressing. The story - we can assume - must be based in part on Nabokov's own experiences and academic acquaintance in upstate New York where he was a professor. Many people in the academic world have come across Pnin characters in their own careers: an aging assistant professor not protected by tenure doing marginal research.
Pnin is a man with seemingly little self confidence and caught in a mediocre academic career. He had been a bit of a dashing figure in his youth in Europe, but has floundered as an academic in America. I short, he is a bumbling and naive fool unaware of his own limitations.
The story contains much subtle humour and pathos. We follow his tenuous marriage, his false teeth, reunions with other Russian émigrés, and his career as the bumbling professor. He is a misfit and is depicted here as always doing things incorrectly or with no style. Pnin is not a symathetic character, although their is a degree of pity for the man generated by Nabokov.
It has a surprise ending which should be left as a surprise.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
A Russian In America, 2006-01-12
This book is truly a masterful work by Nabokov. In a brief summary, the book is like Kafka with a great sense of humor. Yet Kafka never really has a sense of humor, so it is unique to Nabokov. The story depicts a Russian immigrant to the US. He never really integrates the manner and pronunciation of English in the American manner. Much of his commentary is funny. Many of the events that besiege him are hilarious. Often one can do nothing but outright laugh at Nabakov's description and depiction.
Yet after the first two thirds of the book, things take a turn. Prof. Pnin, a caricature of Russians in America, is besieged by some bad luck. He takes all this news in stride, but is nonetheless devastated by some of the pronouncements his good friend and protector announces to him.
In the end, there is no humor, just a vast emptiness. The amusement that the author gives the reader disappears in the last third of the book. The story of abject failure on the part of Prof. Pnin is the subject of the end of the book. And like so many other disadvantaged people in American, once the die is caste, there is no turning away from American Xenophobia and prejudice. These are the societal elements that Nabokov relies on as he puts together this brilliant narrative.
The book is recommended for all Nabokov readers, and well as those looking to understand the treatment of foreigners in American Society. It is a pleasure to read and would be also recommended for all highly interesting contemporary style.
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