Vladimir Nabokov

New review essay on Insomniac Dreams in Sydney Review of Books

By David Potter, 27 July, 2018

Hi all,

 

The Sydney Review of Books has just published my long-ish review essay of Insomniac Dreams, so I thought I'd share it here on the new forum too.

 

https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/insomniac-dreams-experiments-with-time-vladimir-nabokov/

 

It goes without saying that I enjoyed it a lot, and that I admire and respect the job Gennady Barabtarlo's done. My few criticisms of the book - there're always going to be some in any review - were originally tempered with more praise and qualifications in the draft I submitted, but a lot of that ended up on the cutting room floor when the editor started looking for ways to trim it down. So for every "I would have done this differently" or "This omission is puzzling" etc., I most definitely intend an implied "But of course, what is in the book is still excellent" - this is my first published article in a major literature journal, so a bit of first-time imprecision comes with the territory I guess.

 

I had a lot of fun writing this, in any case, and I hope others might get something out of it. I've got some good responses from non-Nabokovians so far, which is nice, since it was very much written with a broader readership in mind, to work also as a kind of (low-key, tacit) introduction - the more people who can be inspired to pick up a Nabokov book the better!

 

Best to everyone,

David Potter