ADDENDUM. An interviewer asked Makine about his
preference for writing in Franch and his attitude toward VN. His reply: "I live
and publish in France so my choice of French is quite logical. This said,
the real language of literary creation for me is poetic language, one that can
modulate itself into any national dialect, whether it be French, Russian,
English or Chinese. It is not so much the aesthete or the stylist that I admire
in Nabokov; rather it is his innate sense of style."
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, January 04, 2003 2:29 PM
Subject: Nabokov and Andrei Makine's _The Crime of Olga
Arbeyelina_
EDNOTE/QUERY
Makine, a Siberian Russian who emigrated to France
in his late twenties (1987), evoked comparisions to Nabokov with his
prize-winning first novel _Dreams of my Russian Summers_. The comparision is
chiefly based on the circumstance that Makin writes very well in a
second language. I gather that several of Makine's works have also been
published in Russian. I do not know whether they are "author translated" or by
some one else. If the former, it might be a further interesting parallel to VN
and of significance to those who are interested in the impact of
language A in language B.
Does anyone know whether Makine
has translated any of his own work into Russian?